Have you ever wanted to make a model of the Marine ecosystem? If you did, have you ever imagined adding candy aspects in it?

Recently, I have made a model of the Marine ecosystem, with candy aspects in it! In my instructable, there will be step by step instructions for anyone to make a model of the Marine ecosystem- with candy!

Supplies

A cardboard box top-( height- 32 cm, width- 52 cm) base-(length-26 cm, width-52 cm)

I used a Lenovo laptop box, but later on I cut it to the dimensions above

2 pieces of paper( 43 cm by 28 cm)
A small piece of paper-any size
Liquid glue- the glue I am using is studio white glue
Paint brushes
Blue paints-shades of dark and light blue ( I used crater's acrylic dark blue and neon blue paint)
White paint ( crater's acrylic white paint )
Black paint ( crater's acrylic black paint )
Yellow paint ( crater's acrylic yellow paint )
Red paint
Purple paint
Orange paint
Gray paint
Brown paint
Ruler
Scissors
A small cardboard piece
Pipe cleaners
White string-or any other colour string
Rocks
Kerr's -simple blue candies
Kerr's- simple orange candies
Kerr's-simple purple candies
Kerr's-simple green candies
Kerr's-simply yellow candies
Kerr's simply red candies
Kerr's-simply pink candies
Kerr's-green peppermint candies
Mortar and pestle
Black pen or black marker
Gummy bears
smarties
Salt and dough:
Cold water
Any brand of flour
Any brand of slat- I am using pink salt
Measuring cups
A large bowl
Wooden spatula or spoon
Waxed paper
Tape

Step 1: Cutting the Box

Start by cutting both sides of the box. Leave about 3 inches of the left ( or right) side of the box, so there's a little cardboard part left of that side. Then, cut the front of the box, ( which already should be coming off from the cutting sides of the box.)

Step 2: Gluing Paper to the Base of the Box

First, glue around the base of the box. Make sure you add a lot of glue. Next, add a piece of paper ( 43 cm by 28 cm) on the base. Smoothe the paper on the base, so it sticks nicely to the cardboard.

Step 3: Gluing Paper to the Top of the Box

Retrieve another piece of paper. First, Glue around the paper. Glue the paper onto the top part of the cardboard. After you glue the paper on the box, smooth out the paper so it isn’t wrinkly.

Step 4: Painting the Top!

To paint the top part of the model, you would need:

Dark blue paint Neon or light blue paint
White paint
Paint brushes

Start by using your paintbrush to paint all of the top of the model dark blue. When the dark blue dries, add specks of light blue at the tippy top of the model. Mix the light blue smoothly with your paintbrush. Then, add some white to it. Mix the white with your paintbrush back and forth. If it’s too white, add a little bit of light blue to keep it a nice light blue colour.

Step 5: Painting the Base!

To paint the base of the model you would need:

Yellow paint
Black paint
Paint brushes

First, you would need to mix some yellow and black paint together, ( mix a little more yellow paint than black paint.) The colour you should have gotten is a dirty greenish colour. Once your colours are mixed, use your paintbrush to smoothly paint the secondary colour- the shade of green, on to the base of the model.

Step 6: Creating the Coral Reef

To create the coral reef you would need

Yellow paint
Red paint
Purple paint
Blue paint
Orange paint
White paint
Paint brushes
A ruler
Scissors
A small cardboard piece

This step would be divided into 2 parts

1.Making the outline of The coral reef First, draw a straight line on your cardboard that is about 20cm Then, draw circles increasing on your line, that would kinda look like a cloud upside down.Cut everything out.

2. Get your paints ready to paint the reef! Start by getting the paints you need. You can use any colourful colours for the coral reef. I used the colours yellow, red, white, purple, blue, and orange. I didn’t have the colours orange and purple, so I mixed red and blue to make purple, and red and yellow to make orange.

As everyone knows, the coral reef is an amazing colour, diversity place. There's no right and wrong on colour the coral reef, you just need to make it colourful. What I did: I first coloured the first curve section yellow. Then, I added colours red and purple randomly in the first two curves. Next, I made the bottom section an orange-tangerine colour. Later on, I made plants with white, purple and blue. After, I just filled in the empty spaces with yellow, orange, and blue.

Once you're done painting the coral reef and the paint dries, glue the bottom of the cardboard piece, and stick it onto the bottom part of the model. Stick the coral reef piece where your model has a side- for me it’s the left side where I left about three inches of the cardboard side.

Step 7: Creating Plants ( Producers )

To create the producers in the Marine ecosystem, you’ll need pipe cleaners and some string.

First, get about 4 pipe cleaners all the same colour- I am using green pipe cleaners. If your pipe cleaners are bigger than 8 cm, cut them in half. All the pipe cleaners don’t need to be exactly the same size, ( some might be 2 cm, some might be 5 or 4 cm, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s not bigger than 8 cm. )

Put your pipe cleaners together, and tie them up in the bottom with a little bit of string. I recommend using white string. You can use different colours of pipe cleaners (with string) to make as many producers you would like. The minimum of producers you should make is 2.

Once you have created the aquatic plants ( producers ) out of pipe cleaners, place it in your model, ( there’s no need of gluing, but you can if the pipe cleaners aren’t staying in place.)

Step 8: Pebbles

For this step all you need is rocks. This is a great excuse to go outside!

Collect as many rocks you can get, and put them in your model. Place your rocks all around the aquatic plants (producers) that are made out of pipe cleaners.

Step 9: Creating Algae With Candy!

To add a touch to our model, we're going to make algae out of candy!

Get 1-4 green kerr's green peppermint candy. Also retrieve a mortar and pestle. Start by, puting 1 Kerr’s candy in the mortar. Use the pestle to crush the candy. Make sure you use all your strength to crush the candy as much as you can.

Next, (when you're done crushing the candy as much as you can,) scatter the crushed candy around the base of the model ecosystem. Place most of the crushed candy around the plants/producers made out of pipe cleaners. There should be more crushed candy around the pipe cleaners plants/producers, but also scatter a little bit of candy around all of the base. If you want to add more crushed Kerr's candies, just crush more of them and add it to your model. I added 2 ( crushed) Kerr's candies in my model to make it look like algae.

Step 10: Creating Fishes Using Candies!

To make sea creatures with candy you would need the following candies:

Kerr's-simply orange candy
Kerr's-simply purple candy
Kerr's- simply blue candy
Kerr's- simply green candy
Kerr's-simply yellow candy
Kerr's- simply red candy
Kerr's-simply pink candy
Kerr's-simply purple candy
Kerr's- red peppermint candy
Kerr's green peppermint candy

You would also need clear tape and scissors

Start by unwarping the candies. Next, Tape the candies on the ocean scenery. Then, cut the end design from the wrappers the candy came out of. Glue the wrapping at the end of the fishes to make the fishes tail. You can also cut small triangles from paper, paint it, and glue it on the fishes, if you don't want to use the wrappers as tails.

Use different types of candies to display the various diversity of fish in the Marine ecosystem.

Tape the fishes all around the model. I taped two fishes near the pipe cleaners to show th fish eating ( interacting ) with seaweed.

Optional:draw a few bubbles above the fish, to demonstrate the fish breathing oxygen.

An example is the image, where I am stick an orange fish that has bubbles- drawn by a black pen, above it.

Also, take two kerr's candies ( colour doesn't matter) and add their tail by using the wrappers it came out of. Don't tape the two candies anywhere, just keep them on the base of the model. Keep one near the producers-pipe cleaners, and one near the coral reef-the small cardboard piece.

These fishes are meant to look like dead fishes.

Step 11: Sea Animals Made Without Candy- Salt and Dough Recipe

I used a salt and dough recipe to create some of my sea creatures.

Salt and dough recipe: Pour ¼ cups- about 59 mL of salt (I am using pink salt) into a large bowl- use a measuring cup to measure the amount of table salt Pour ¼ cups- about 59mL of cold water into the same bowl-use a measuring cup to measure the water Stir the ingredients in the bowl using a wooden spatula or a wooden spoon constantly for 40 seconds Next, add ½ cups-about 118mL of (any brand) flour using a measuring cup, into your bowl Once again, stir the the ingredients around with your wooden spatula or spoon Keep stirring until your dough is getting less sticking If your dough is too sticky, just add a little bit more of flour into your bowl,and counting mixing Keep playing with your, until the stickiness decreases Then, take the dough and place it in your hands Roll the dough into a sphere shape Lastly, place your dough on a piece of waxed paper

Step 12: Making Marine Animals With Salt and Dough ( Marine Turtle Example )

Now let’s create some Marine animals! If your dough finishes, follow the recipe again to make more dough-Step 11.An example of salt dough creation is this turtle I made months ago during my free time If your interested on adding a salt dough turtle, the steps to make it are below

If you want to make more than one of each sea creature, you're welcomed to repeat the steps

Marine Turtle:

Start by taking a little bit of dough.
Make the piece round by rolling it in your hands
Place the piece on waxed paper, and flatten the sphere a little
Take another piece of dough (a little less than the last piece)
Also make this piece round like a sphere, and stick it on top of the flattened sphere.The flattened sphere is the body, and the smaller sphere is the turtle’s head
Take another piece of down and roll it in your hands. Lengthen, and thin the piece.
Stick the piece on the body of the turtle ( it’s the turtles leg )
Make 2-3 more skinny pieces of dough for the turtle

Step 13: Creating a Jellyfish

First, take a little bit of salt and dough from the munch on your waxed paper. Use your hands to round that little piece of dough.
Next, take a lesser amount of dough. Use your hands to roll it back and forth, to length the piece of dough. The piece of dough should look kinda like a snake.
Then, stick the piece to the previous dough piece you’ve retrieved. Make two more tiny line ( snake ) pieces with your dough, and add it to the head of your jellyfish.
Put your dough jellyfish on some waxed paper.

Step 14: Creating an Octopus:

Take a little bit of dough
Use your hands to round the dough
Keep it o your waxed paper, and flatten it a little
Then, grab a little bit more down.
Roll the dough in your hand to length the dough, to make it look long and skinny. This would be one of the octopuses tentacle.
Stick the tentacle on the octopus head ( the flattened circle shaped piece of dough)
Make 7 more tentacles by rolling small pieces of down, to make them long and skinny.

Step 15: Creating a Shark

Grab a handful of dough
Roll the dough in your hands to make it a big sphere
Place the dough on a piece of waxed paper
Stretch out the dough on the waxed paper. Make the dough bigger at the front, and a little bit thinner at the back
In about the middle of the shark, use your fingers to pull the dough away a little

You can also take a little bit of dough from your pile, and stick it on the sides of the shark You make have to smooth it out a little so the dough form with it

6. At the end of the thinner part of the shark( the tail ), tear away the bottom part a little to form the shark’s fin.

Step 16: Creating a Seal

Grab (little less ) of a handful of dough Roll the dough into sphere with your hands
Place on some waxed paper
Stretch the dough out on the waxed paper to make it a little longer
Smooth one of the ends of the dough, to make it thinner. That way our seal has a tail
Round the other side of the seal more Make it lean up a little
Grab some dough from your pile to place under the seals head, to help it lean up
Then, take two small pieces of dough from your pile.
Round the pieces out and flattened out the the two pieces
Once there flattened out, stick them on the sides of your seal

Step 17: Creating a Crab

Take a little piece of dough.Round it out with your hands
Place it on waxed paper
Grab a smaller piece of dough
Use your hands to roll it back and forth to lengthen and thin the piece of dough
Stick the piece on the crab's head that should be on waxed paper
Make 5 more skinning line piece of dough, and stick all of them on your crab's head

Step 18: Creating a Dolphin

Grab a handful of dough
Round the dough using your hands, to make it look like a sphere
Place it on waxed paper
Falten the dough out and length it
At one end of the dolphin, smooth the dough to make it point a little.

That would be the front of the dolphin-its face

6.At the other end of the dolphin, spread a little bit of the dough, to make the dolphin’s fin

Step 19: Creating a Marine Worm

Get a big handful of dough
Roll it with your back and forth to make it long and thin
Place it on waxed paper
Take a little bit of the marine worm, and wrap it around at the front. - optional

This way the marine worm - dough isn’t to long

Step 20: Painting the Seal Animals Made Out of Salt and Dough

First you would nee:

Brown paint
Acrylic neon blue paint
Light gray paint
Dark gray paint
White acrylic paint
Red acrylic paint
Black acrylic paint
Yellow acrylic paint
Paint brushes
Green acrylic paint

This step would be divided to explain/show how each dough creature was painted clearly

Step 21: Painting the Marine Turtle

First, paint your turtle's shell-body dark green-mix yellow acrylic paint and blue acrylic paint together if you don't have green. next, paint the turtle's face and legs light green- mix white to the dark green

I also painted the turtle with black eyes and a little one dot inside the eye. I used acrylic black and acrylic white paints.

Step 22: Painting the Jellyfish

Start by painting all of the jellyfish yellow. Next, mix red acrylic paint with white acrylic paint to make pink. Then, paint the pink paint on the jellyfish’s tentacles.

Step 23: Painting the Octopus

For the octopus, use your paintbrush to paint the octopus orange with orange paint. If you don’t have orange paint mix the red acrylic paint and the neon blue acrylic paint together.

Step 24: Painting the Shark

First paint all of the shark acrylic white, using your paintbrush. Next, when the paint dries, paint the bottom of the shark dark gray-mix acrylic black and a little bit of acrylic white together. Then, paint the top acrylic neon blue paint, with your paint brush.

Step 25: Painting the Seal

Retrieve your paint brush, and paint brown paint all around the seal,( mix acrylic blue, acrylic red, and acrylic yellow together.)

Step 26: Painting the Crab

Use your paintbrush to paint all of the crab acrylic red.

Step 27: Painting the Dolphin

First mix black acrylic paint and a little bit white acrylic paint together. Then, paint the dark gray paint all over the dolphin. Afterwards, paint a little bit of acrylic white paint, on the bottom half of the dolphin.

Step 28: Painting the Marine Worm

First paint all of the marine worm a coat of white. Next, mix acrylic red paint and acrylic white paint together- o make pink paint. Then, paint a coat of pink on the marine worm.

When your done painting all of the Marine creatures, place them near a sunny place for it to dry.

Step 29: Taping the Salt and Dough Animals

To tape the salt and dough animals, all you would need is clear tape and the animals-of course!

The Marine worm, seal, crab, and turtle- if you made a turtle, won't need to be taped.They will be placed on the base of the model. Just place the seal directly in front of the candy fish near the pipe cleaners. It would demonstrate the seal eating ( interacting ) with the dead fish.

Place the Marine worm directly in front of the fish near the coral reef. It would demonstrate the Marine worm decomposing ( interacting ) with the dead fish.

The turtle will be placed next to a aquatic plant - the pipe cleaners, to demonstrate the turtle eating ( interacting) with aquatic plants -like seaweed.

Place the crab anywhere on the base.

If your salt and dough creations are too soft from the back, face their backs in the sun for a few minutes.

Tape the jellyfish on the ocean scenery. Tape it directly on of one the aquatic plants-one of the pipe cleaner sets.This demonstrates a jellyfish eating( interacting) with a producer.
Tape the shark at the tipp top of the ocean scenery. Tape it a little diangley so it looks like it's leaning down to look at the sea animals
Tape the dolphin in front of the shark. This demonstrates the shark eating ( interacting) with the dolphin
Tape theoctopus on top of a fish-anywhere on the model. This demonstrates the octopus eating ( interacting) with a fish/fishes

Step 30: Adding Special Touches-using Candy!

At this stage, our models are basically done, but doesn't mean we can't add some special candy touches!

You would need gummy bears( or any shape candies ) and smarties.

Start by, placing a bunch of smarties ( the amount in 1 pack ) around the base of the model, close to the pipe cleaners. Spread the smaries around the animals as well. In addition, stick a blue smartie-using glue, on the shark, to form the shark's eye.

Next, retrieve 1-3 gummy bears. Cut really tiny piece from the gummy bears-about the size of the gummy bears ear.

Place two little gummy bear pieces on the octopus, crab, and two little gummy bear pieces on the jellyfish.

Pace one little gummy bear piece on the seal, to make the seal's nose.

I hope everyone enjoys making a model of the Marine ecosystem, using candy!

Introduction: Marine Ecosystem Model With Candy!