Coral Reef Diorama
Learn all about coral reefs and ocean life in this fun coral reef diorama craft.

Safety Tips

  • Kids 8 years and younger should use child-safe scissors.
Coral Reef Diorama craft

Materials

  • Shoebox or similar-sized box
  • Printable card stock or construction paper
  • Crayons or colored pencils
  • Acrylic paint
  • White glue
  • Scissors
  • Paint brush
  • Pencil
  • Sand
  • Sea shells (optional)
  • Paper bowl or egg carton (optional)

Steps

Step 1 Coral Reef Diorama 1. Most box dioramas would be standing on its wider panel. In this tutorial, we wanted to show that a vertical box orientation can be used to emphasize depth, which is a great concept for an ocean-themed scene.

Start off by painting the inside of the box with blue acrylic paint or covering it with blue-colored paper. You can also paint the outside of the box if you like.
Step 2 Coral Reef Diorama 2. Draw different kinds of sea animals, including corals and bottom dwellers (e.g. starfish, crabs, clams, etc.) on white construction paper. You may also print out these sea creatures and corals on card stock.

Color and cut out the animals.
Step 3a Coral Reef Diorama 3. Make side, bottom, or center tabs for your sea creatures. These will allow the animals to be attached to the bottom and/or sides of your box. There are a number of ways to make the tabs:

a.) Make an L-shaped paper tab and glue this at the back of the animal's body. Position the tab at the bottom portion of the animal (bottom tab) or at the sides (side tab).
Step 3b Coral Reef Diorama b.) Draw side and/or bottom tabs before cutting out your animals in Step 2.
Step 3c Coral Reef Diorama c.) Fold a rectangular piece of paper on both ends to create a center tab. This tab allows you to attach a paper animal to the background.
Step 4 Coral Reef Diorama 4. Glue some animals and corals onto the background. These pieces obviously do not need any tabs.

Paint more animals and other details onto the background if you like.
Step 5 Coral Reef Diorama 5. You may add other pieces on the foreground besides the paper cut-outs. For instance, this paper bowl section (bowl cut into quarters) can be used as a rock where one of the animals can be positioned. You can use other materials such as egg cartons or small boxes to break the flatness of the foreground.
Step 6 Coral Reef Diorama 6. Glue one of the animals onto the paper bowl.
Step 7 Coral Reef Diorama 7. Position the rest of the animals inside your diorama. The creatures on the foreground all have bottom tabs. Glue the tabs in place.
Step 8 Coral Reef Diorama 8. These swimming fishes have side tabs for gluing onto the sides of the box. Fishes with center tabs can be glued onto the background.

Another option for creating swimming animals is to hang them from the box's ceiling with strings.
Step 9 Coral Reef Diorama 9. You can also make a fish hiding among corals by creating a slit each on the bottom edge of the fish and on the top edge of a coral. Interlock the slits to position the fish in place.
Step 10 Coral Reef Diorama 10. Once all the animals are in place, apply glue on the entire bottom surface of the box. Spoon on some sand over the glue to create a sandy ocean bottom.

Position the paper starfish on the sand. Add real seashells if you have some.
Coral Reef Diorama 11. Enjoy your terrific Coral Reef Diorama!

Go to main Habitat Diorama page for more animal diorama ideas or browse all Diorama Crafts.

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