Rainforest Theme

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about animals that live in the rainforest ~

Sections for This Theme

Books
Rhymes
Songs
Activities
Printables
Links
Resources

Books

Rhymes

“Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree” Rhyme

Five little monkeys,
Sitting in a tree,
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
“You can’t catch me,
No, you can’t catch me.”

Along comes Mr. Crocodile
quiet as can be…
SNAP!

[Repeat rhyme with four monkeys, three, two, and one.]

Little Monkeys

Little monkeys swinging in the tree,
All hold hands and swing with me.
Swing up high and swing down low,
Swing in the tree, and don’t let go!
Swing, swing, like I do.
Swing like monkeys in the zoo.
[All stand in a circle, holding hands, and swing arms]

Songs

Five Little Monkeys, by Jack Hartmann on the “Math in Motion” CD

Activities

Caps for Sale

[Large Group]
This book is not about the rainforest, but it is a great book about monkeys. After we read the story, we act it out. Our props are colored felt circles for pretend caps. One child is the peddler and the other children are the monkeys. It’s a lot of fun because we get to shake our finger, and stamp our feet, and pretend to be mad.

Baby Python Dance

[Large Motor]
After reading the book, Verdi, we dance with Baby Pythons (a piece of yellow yarn). We use the song “The Bean Bag Boogie” [Greg & Steve] while using the snakes instead of bean bags.

Monkey Babies

[Large Motor]
The children walk around the circle on all fours like monkeys, carrying a “baby monkey” (bean bag) on their backs.

Snakes

[Art]
Children use Crayola Model Magic to make a snake. They roll it out into a snake shape, then shape the snake in any position they choose (some kids form their snakes into a coil and some form theirs in a curvy line). After the snakes have time to dry (a couple of days), the children paint them in the colors and patterns they choose. We look at snake photos on the internet to get ideas for the colors and patterns.

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose a Rainforest-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.

Monkey See/Monkey Do

[Literacy]
We do this activity after reading Caps for Sale which is a book about monkeys who copy everything. The children work in pairs to do this activity. One child makes a design of shapes and lines on a geoboard, and the monkey (the other child) copies the design. Then the children switch roles.

“The Umbrella” Characters

[Literacy]
After reading Jan Brett’s book The Umbrella, we talk about what “characters” are in a story. The second time we read the story, each child is given a character flannel board piece from the story (these are printed from Jan Brett’s website). As we come to each character’s part in the story, the children place the character on the flannel board. After the story is read, we name each of the characters and talk about what they did in the story and what they said. At small group time, each child chooses their favorite character, and we make them into stick puppets (also printed from Jan Brett’s site). Each child describes their chosen character to the group.
The Umbrella Characters

Monkey Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each monkey, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an “X” over the monkey if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.

Monkey Bingo

Pattern Block Snakes

[Math]
We use the pattern blocks to make snakes in an AABB pattern. For example, triangle, triangle, square, square, triangle, triangle, square, square. Another day, we use paper pattern blocks to make a pattern snake on paper.

Poison Frog Tumble

[Math]
We use lima beans that were spray-painted blue on one side and red on the other to represent our poison dart frogs. Children put ten frogs in a cup, shake them, and toss the beans on a green felt mat. They count how many reds they tossed and how many blues.

Sizes

[Math]
Each child uses 20 pieces of plastic straws (cut 1-inch long) and 2 pieces of yarn. They use these to make snakes of two different sizes: one short and one long. They have to problem-solve and choose how many pieces of straw they want to string on each snake.

Size Seriation

[Math]
Children use jewel strings (we pretended they were snakes) of different lengths. They count the jewels on each string and line them up from shortest to longest.

Tree Frogs

[Science]
Tree frogs have a sticky liquid on them that help them stick to trees and leaves (some tree frogs can even climb up a window pane.) Children cut out a tree frog, spread some jelly or jam on the back, and stick it to a window. The jam comes off with window cleaner.
Tree Frog Picture

Rainforest Terrarium

[Science]
Cut off the bottom and top of a 2-liter soda bottle (throw away the middle). Mix gravel with charcoal and layer it in the bottom of the soda bottle. Add a layer of potting soil. Sprinkle with water. Plant the plants and arrange stones, moss, and a plastic rainforest animal. Water every few weeks.

For the Science Center

[Science]
Rainforest plants, such as bromeliads, Venus fly catcher, etc.

Taste Test

[Sensory]
Children taste-test products from the rainforest: mango, banana, papaya, pineapple, coconut, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, chocolate. Children place a sticky note with their name on it on a chart graph under each fruit they liked.

Rainforest Pizza

[Cooking]
Ingredients:
Peanut butter
English muffin
Toppings: banana slices, coconut, chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, pineapple pieces.
Spread peanut butter on the English muffin. The children may add any toppings they choose.
*Check for any children with peanut allergy before doing this activity. Macadamia nut butter can be used in place of peanut butter.