Hi friends! Today we’re talking about museums. Did you know there’s a whole day dedicated to museums called, International Museum Day! This year, International Museum Day is on May 18th.
What is a museum? A museum is a building that holds a collection of objects that are found in nature or created by people like you and I. You can think of your house or bedroom as a museum of you since it holds a collection of your things.
There are all kinds of different museums. Our museum, the Glazer Children’s Museum is one type of museum. As a children’s museum, what can you do there? You can play, interact, and use your imagination!
Another type of museum is an art museum. What do you think an art museum might have inside? Art! Such as, paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and installations. There are also science museums that teach us about outer space and dinosaurs. Natural history museums are museums that teach us about the natural world all around us, past and present. They might have fossils of different animals that are extinct like woolly mammoths! These museums teach us about plants, insects, rocks, climate, and ecosystems.
To celebrate International Museum Day, let’s make a diorama of a museum. A diorama is a small model of what a museum would look like if it was life-sized.
I’m going to make a Natural History Museum, so first, we need to go on a scavenger hunt to find objects to put on display. You can put lots of different things in your diorama, to help get us started let’s find:
- A rock, shell, or leaf
- A small toy or teddy bear
- A small drawing you’ve created
- Something that makes you smile
- Something soft
Once you find everything you’re going to put in your diorama it’s time to build!
Art Steps:
- Find a small box, such as a shoebox to put your diorama in. If your objects are too big for a box, lay them out in a room, or on a table.
- Gather additional materials to help you build your diorama such as tape, glue, paper, cardboard, markers, crayons, or colored pencils.
- Decide on the design of your diorama. Where should everything go? What colors should the walls and floor be?
- Color, paint, or use paper to change the colors of the walls and floor.
- Use extra paper or cardboard to create new walls inside your box for additional objects.
- Place or tape your objects into your cardboard box.
- Hooray! Your diorama is complete. Show us what you created with an adult’s permission. Tag the Glazer Children’s Museum on social media and use #GCMatHome
Team GCM Creators: Ashley