Hop on the Safari bus. We are going on a jungle tour in the preschool classroom. It’s going to be a lot of fun for the kids, and I guarantee you’ll have fun.
Here are some ideas on how to get your jungle-themed lesson plan started and some ideas to keep it going as long as your preschoolers are interested in the activity.
Here’s how to introduce the topic:
Day 1. Ask the children if they know what the word ‘jungle’ means. Explain what a jungle is to those who don’t know, and have a picture of a jungle so they can associate your description with the picture.
Day 2. Have books* in the library about jungles and animals that live in the jungle. They can be a mix of cartoon type children’s books and real life children’s books. (Your local library should be able to help you find books.)
Day 3. Find pictures* of jungle animals in magazines, books, the Internet, calendars, or anywhere you can find them, laminate them, and post them on the classroom walls.
Day 4. Place jungle-themed toys on the toy shelf and place some jungle-themed puzzles in the puzzle area.
Day 5. Find a CD of jungle-themed music and play it during playtime after talking about the jungle.
*If you have pictures or books showing some type of tribal people, you could make tribal masks for a creative art activity and the children can use them in the dramatic play center.
You can also place some paper towel tubes, pipe cleaners, markers, googly eyes, etc., on the art shelf and see what animals they create.
Here are some examples of animals you can introduce through books and pictures:
panthers
snakes
Bears
monkeys
zebras
giraffes
elephants
cheetahs
alligators
Rhino
birds
Hippopotamus
Feel free to have an open discussion with the children. Talk about the colors of the animals, their teeth, their eyes, which animal each child likes best, etc.
If you want, you can also mention what the animals eat, but be sure to keep it simple. Children at this stage of life do not need to start learning about the words carnivores, herbivores, etc. Just keep things simple like say, a panther eats meat, a monkey eats fruit, a giraffe eats leaves from tall trees, etc.
Children will probably want to know where animals’ homes are in the jungle. This information should be easy to find through any books and photographs you have. If not, the library will have books on the individual animals you are talking about that will give you the information you need.
Here are some examples to get you started:
The animals will find homes within their habitat (the jungle) which they will make a home for themselves and their animal families.
Homes for animals in the jungle can be a nest, a den, a burrow, under a rock, in a hollow tree trunk, high up in trees, etc.
You can then talk about which animal might live in a tree, which would live under a rock, etc.
To incorporate this topic in the different areas of classroom programming, some examples could be:
Creating a Jungle-Themed Dramatic Play Center:
Make a jungle jeep, safari jeep or car out of a box or put 4 chairs together with a steering wheel standing in front of a chair.
Get some hats that look like a safari.
Binoculars for children.
Simulation cameras.
Put jungle animal pictures on the wall and watch your preschoolers go crazy over this theme. 🙂
Here’s a sand sensory idea:
Put some sand in the sensory bin.
Find some small rubber or plastic sand animals* that you would find in the jungle. (Snakes, beetles, insects, etc.)
Place these items in the sensory bin and voila.
*I have had great success finding almost everything I need at dollar stores. Look them up, you will surely find what you are looking for.
Be as creative as you can with this theme. The possibilities are endless if you put your mind to it. When you listen to jungle music, you can incorporate creative movement into it. Have the children choose an animal they would like to pretend to be and move to the music as that animal. There is no right or wrong movement, kids will have a lot of fun.
You can carry this theme over to outdoor gross motor play as well. You could bring some of the dramatic play items outside such as hats, binoculars, cameras, etc. Place some stuffed toys here and there around the play yard (make sure they are washed when you bring them back for the day) and go on a safari hunt in the great outdoors.
Children can ride their own bikes, go on a ‘lion/bear hunt’, run away from animals that ‘scare’ them, tiptoe and walk around animals that are ‘sleeping’ .
Remember to use your imagination and expand on what the children are doing and saying.
Enjoy a wonderful jungle themed lesson and go wild with adventure.