RIC-20969 Early years Places - The Rainforest

EARLY YEARS THEMES 

Places 

The rainforest 

A complete unit of lessons and activities

Early years themes—Places 

Published by R.I.C. Publications ® 2010 

Copyright © R.I.C. Publications ® 2010 

RIC– 20969 

Titles in this series: 

Early years themes—Places 

Early years themes—People 

Early years themes—Animals 

Early years themes—Science 

Early years themes—Fantasy 

Early years themes—Fairytales 

Early years themes—Special days and celebrations 

Accompanying resources available: 

Early years themes—Places Posters (set of 5) 

Early years themes—Places Stickers (set of 5) 

Early years themes Interactive CD (Places, People, 

Animals, Science) 

Early years themes Interactive CD (Fantasy, Fairytales, 

Special days and celebrations) 

This master may only be reproduced by the 

original purchaser for use with their class(es). The 

publisher prohibits the loaning or onselling of this 

master for the purposes of reproduction. 

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publication may only be reproduced by the original 

purchaser for use with their class(es). The publisher 

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the publisher has no control over any subsequent changes which may be made to webpages. It is strongly recommended that the class 

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View all pages online 

PO Box 332 Greenwood Western Australia 6924 

Website: www.ricpublications.com.au 

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Cross-curricular activities 

English 

• Identify the beginning sound in the name of a rainforest 

animal (e.g. ‘monkey’). As a group, give each a name 

with the same initial sound; for example, ‘Meeka the 

monkey’. (Language) 

• Children choose a photograph of a rainforest animal and 

describe it. The children should say what it looks like— 

describing its covering, eyes, paws, legs, claws, teeth, 

where it is sitting/lying/eating etc. This will introduce the 

concepts of appearance, habitat, diet etc. (Literacy) 

• Label groups of individual rainforest animals created for 

art/craft display with simple sentences which include the 

names of the animals, how they can move or what they 

look like. The children can give suggestions; for example: 

‘Jaguars can jump’; ‘Tigers roar’; ‘Parrots are colourful’. 

(Language, Literacy) 

• Collect appropriate newspaper or magazine articles about 

the rainforest or plants or animals from the rainforest; for 

example, about the birth of a baby sloth at a zoo. Relate 

the content in simple terms and display on a news board. 

(Literacy) 

• The children read simple rebus sentences, replacing 

the picture with a word. For example, ‘The 

rainforest are tall’. (Language, Literacy) 

in the 

• Read and discuss a nonfi ction book such as Rainforest 

animals by Paul Hess and a fi ction book such as Toby 

Toucan and his noisy beak by Paul Flemming. The 

children state their preference. (Literature, Literacy) 

• Laminate large colourful photographs of rainforest creatures and labels of their names. Include examples of mammals 

(tiger, chimpanzee, gorilla, jaguar, monkey); reptiles/snakes (anaconda, python, boa constrictor); amphibians 

(frogs); birds (eagle, parrot, cassowary, toucan); fi sh (piranha, electric eel) and arthropods (butterfl ies, 

ants). As a group, identify the photographs by name, then, a few at a time, show the children 

which labels and photographs go together. Play matching games to promote recognition 

of each animal and its name. After the initial games, use the labels at the writing 

table for copying or as a specifi ed writing activity. Websites such as may provide useful images. (Language) 

• Listen to and identify rainforest noises while relaxing 

on the mat. The children relate things they imagined: 

tall trees, rain falling, animals sleeping or lurking, birds 

chattering, ants scurrying etc. (Literacy) 

• Make up nonsense or real rhyming words to match words 

relating to the theme; for example: ‘jungle’—’bungle’; 

‘tiger’—’liger’; ‘parrot’—’carrot’; ‘vines’—’lions’; ‘trees’— 

’bees’. Introduce the rhyming words with a rhyming book 

such as Over in the jungle: A rainforest rhyme by Marianne 

Berkes. (Language, Literature) 

• Say and clap the names of animals with 1, 2, 3 and 4 

syllables. Play ‘Which animal is this?’ Match the syllable 

clapping to a photograph. (Be sure there is only one 

obvious, possible answer.) (Language) 

• In small groups, play ‘I went to the rainforest and I met a/ 

an ...’. Each child has to remember the names of all the 

animals that have been named before. (Language) 

• Provide large, simple rainforest animal templates for the 

children to trace around on white paper. Use brightly 

coloured crayons or markers (and animal pictures as 

reference) for the children to write patterns to create fur, 

feathers, spots, scales or stripes on their traced-animal 

shapes. (Literacy) 

• Make ‘What am I?’ booklets. The children or a scribe write 

short sentences or complete cloze sentences to describe 

an animal on one page before drawing a picture on the 

next. (Language, Literacy) 

• Make two copies of simple sentences about rainforest 

plants and animals. Laminate both. Cut one into individual 

words and ask the children to match the individual words 

to those in the uncut sentences. Read together as a class. 

Children can draw or paint pictures to match and copy 

the sentences. (Language, Literacy) 

62 Early years themes—Places—The rainforest www.ricpublications.com.au – R.I.C. Publications ® 

ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

The rainforest – 1 

Mathematics 

• Students place a given number of plastic animals (or 

pictures) in boxes which represent specifi c habitat 

locations; for example, 3 chicks in the nest, 2 cubs in the 

den, 4 fi sh in the river. (Number and Algebra) 

• Using plastic ants, butterfl ies, frogs, monkeys, tigers, 

snakes and birds, place collections of animals in their 

correct section on a poster of the rainforest. Count the 

collections and match a numeral to each. Use the same 

animals to make rainforest animal patterns—snake, 

monkey, snake, monkey etc. Complete other patterns 

orally with clapping. (Number and Algebra) 

• The children thread a given number (between 1 and 

20) of cut sections of plastic straws onto two different 

pieces of wool or string to create two snakes of different 

lengths— one long and one short. (Number and Algebra, 

Measurement and Geometry, Statistics and Probability) 

• Use coloured pattern blocks to create a snake; for example, 

triangle, triangle, square, square, triangle, triangle, 

square, square. (Number and Algebra, Measurement and 

Geometry) 

• Provide shapes in appropriately-coloured paper (patterned 

or plain) to construct a monkey or a tall tree. Refer to 

blackline on Page 73. (Measurement and Geometry) 

• The children paint and pile four green boxes (or blocks 

covered in green paper) on top of each other to represent 

the four layers of the rainforest (see page 68). Encourage 

the use of positional language—on the bottom, on top of, 

underneath etc. as well as ordinal language—fi rst, next, 

after, last etc. Place pictures of animals from each layer 

inside each appropriate box or tape them to the blocks. 

(Measurement and Geometry) 

Emergent 

• Demonstrate the layers of 

the rainforest by attaching or 

gluing four different strips of 

Canopy 

tissue paper of various shades 

of green underneath each other 

on the board or large sheet of 

Understorey 

paper, overlapping them a little. 

Count the layers. Say them in 

Forest floor 

order from fi rst to fourth. Name 

their positions—top, next, second from the bottom and 

bottom. Ask the children to identify the layers using words 

such as tallest, lowest, highest, middle etc. (Number and 

Algebra, Measurement and Geometry) 

• Sort rainforest animals by ‘skin’ type—stripes, spots, solid 

colour, fur, feathers, scales etc. Line up the collections into 

columns and count each. (Measurement and Geometry, 

Statistics and Probability) 

• Use a large, bright, clear picture of a rainforest scene to 

play ‘How many can you see?’ in which children count 

the numbers of animals and/or their body parts. For 

example, ‘How many monkeys?’ ‘How many tails?’ ‘How 

many trunks?’ ‘How many eyes?’ Develop the game by 

asking ‘How many more/less than ... ?’ (Number and 

Algebra) 

• Write the numerals 1–5 or 1–10 on sloth, monkey, frog 

or parrot shapes on a sheet for each child. Place a pile 

of numeral cards for the children to select from. The 

children use animal stamps to mark off each number on 

their sheet as it is selected. Refer to blackline on page 72. 

(Number and Algebra) 

• The children fold large sheets of green painted or printed 

paper in halves and cut out or trace symmetrical leaf 

shapes. Use the same technique and bright blue paper 

to create blue morpho butterfl ies. Provide templates 

and other colours to create frogs to sit on the leaves. 

(Measurement and Geometry) 

• Divide the class into two groups to play ‘Predator-prey’ 

or ‘Hunter-dinner’; for example, monkeys and leopards. 

Designate safe areas for homes in the rainforest (outdoor 

area). Call out a number between 1 and 5. The leopards 

must run to tap that number of monkeys. Monkeys are 

only allowed to stay in a home while they count to 10 

and then run around at least to the count of 10. The 

monkeys tapped sit out the remainder of the game. Count 

the number left. Continue until all monkeys are gone. 

Swap positions. Repeat with other animals. (Number and 

Algebra) 

• Play commercial games such as ‘Barrel of monkeys’ to connect up to 12 monkeys without dropping them. Or play ‘Ants in 

the pants’ to see who can get the most ants in the pants. (Number and Algebra) 

R.I.C. Publications ® – www.ricpublications.com.au Early years themes—Places—The rainforest 63 

ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6


Science 

• Read the book Red-eyed tree frog 

by Joy Cowley (or similar). When 

discussing the book, emphasise how 

tree frogs have a sticky substance on 

their feet that help them stick to trees 

and leaves. Give each child, or have 

them make, a paper red-eyed tree frog. Fold the 

legs, place a sticky substance such as jam or honey on 

the feet and attach to windows. The jam or honey can be 

easily removed using window cleaner after the frogs are 

taken down. If preferred, use something like Blu-Tack. 

Refer to blackline on Page 70. 

• Make rainforest terrariums. Ask adult helpers to cut the 

top and bottom from a 2-litre soft drink bottle and discard 

the middle. Mix some gravel with charcoal and place it 

in the bottom section of each bottle. Cover with a layer of 

potting mix and water. Add small plants, stones, moss 

or leaves and a plastic rainforest animal. Use thick paint 

to decorate the outside of the terrarium with climbing 

vines. Place the top section of each bottle on as a cover. 

Water every two or three weeks. (Take care when using 

potting mix. Wear gloves and wash hands thoroughly 

afterwards.) 

• Explain what a pitcher is and view the colours of real-life 

pitcher plants. Use water-resistant paint to decorate both 

sides of plastic disposable cake decorating bags to make 

pitcher plants. Punch holes on both sides of the top edge 

and hang from trees overnight or when a light shower is 

expected to demonstrate how pitcher plants collect water 

and nutrients. 

• Place pot plants of varying heights (including one large 

enough for a child to sit under) in a corner on a large, 

old plastic sandpit (such as the familiar clam shape) 

or plastic sheet to create a rainforest microclimate for 

the children to experience. Spread dead leaves and 

grass around the bottom. Water using a watering can 

to demonstrate rain falling. Use a tall reading lamp to 

demonstrate how the sunlight reaches some layers and 

not others. Have the children take turns sitting under it to 

experience the darkness in the lower layers. 

• Discuss different characteristics of rainforest animals; for 

example, physical features (what they look like), habitat 

(where they live), diet (what they eat), how they move, 

hunt, look after their young. Play describing games to 

promote recognition of each animal’s characteristics. For 

example: ‘I am black. I am strong. I hunt at night. I carry 

my prey up a tree. What am I?’ Answer: a black panther. 

• Use paper plates painted and cut, or folded in half, to 

create a deadly Venus fl y trap. Attach ‘spiky’ fringing 

made from cardboard for ‘teeth’. 

Ask the children to hold their 

Venus fl y trap and pretend to 

catch a plastic or child-made ant 

or insect in the centre. 

• Place examples of pot plants such as bromeliads, Venus 

fl y traps, ferns, vines such as Devil’s Ivy and broadleaf 

plants such as large philodendrons in the science corner. 

Look at, discuss and care for them for the duration of the 

theme. 

• Show individual pictures of different rainforest plants and 

animals. As a class, arrange the pictures to create food 

chains and webs. Retell the story ‘This is the house that 

Jack built ...’ in the following way: ‘This is the ant in 

the rainforest. This is the sloth who eats the ant in the 

rainforest. This is the jaguar that eats the sloth who eats 

the ant in the rainforest.’ Repeat with other plants and 

animals. 

• View pictures, or read books about, two different rainforest 

animals such as the toucan and the parrot, or the gorilla 

and the spider monkey. Identify similar and different 

features. Encourage the use of complete sentences such 

as ‘The toucan is bright and colourful and so is the parrot’; 

‘The gorilla is big but the spider monkey is small’. 

• Introduce the words for groups of animals—‘mammal’, 

‘reptile’, ‘amphibian’, ‘birds’ and ‘fi sh’. Young children 

love to learn words which are hard to say or different 

from their normal vocabulary. Show, or tell them, which 

rainforest animals belong to each group. They may be 

able to guess some themselves. 

• View and match pictures of baby and adult rainforest 

animals. Repeat with seeds to reinforce the concept that 

plants begin life as a ‘baby’ plant and have a lifecycle as 

well as animals. 

• Mimic and describe the ways different animals move— 

climb, scurry, fl y etc. If possible, view their motion fi rst 

before imitating. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6


Health and physical education 

• Play ‘Rainforest tag’. Choose two species from the rainforest food web. Divide the 

class in half and allocate one half as the predators and the other half their prey. The 

predators chase their prey to the other end of an allotted space. As a player is caught, 

she/he must become a predator. Game continues until all children are predators and 

only one prey, the winner, remains. Repeat with different species and predators. 

• Play ‘Rainforest layers’. On a command, the children move in different ways: swinging, 

swooping, ‘fl ying’, sliding, rolling, swimming at different levels: low, medium, high, 

very high, to simulate the movement of different creatures that inhabit the rainforest’s 

different layers. 

• Play ‘Rainforest home’. Name each of the four corners of a playing area as different 

areas where rainforest animals may live; for example, trees, vines, forest fl oor, 

bushes. (If the children are more capable, use the correct names for the four layers.) 

The children move around the area as commanded until a whistle is blown and they 

run to a ‘home’ corner. When all the children are ‘home’, name one corner to be 

eliminated. (This may reinforce the concept that some areas of the rainforest are in 

danger of being destroyed by human activity.) These children ‘sit out’ and the game 

continues until one child, the winner, remains. 

• Create a circuit of stations or obstacle course to practise set skills. The children may 

need to climb a ladder to mimic climbing a vine or tall tree, balance on a beam to 

walk across a bridge over a river, crawl through a tunnel to get mimic an ant hiding 

under a leaf to get out of the rain or slide down a slippery dip to mimic rain falling 

down. On command, children stand still before moving to the next station. 

• Children create a simple, 

edible rainforest scene on a 

paper plate, using chopped 

raw vegetable and fruit. They 

may like to make four distinct 

layers or a picture of a tree, 

vine or animal. 

• Create a healthy lifestyle 

poster with characteristics of 

different creatures. The children 

complete oral cloze sentences, 

putting in the correct name 

from a choice of creatures. 

For example: Get lots of sleep 

like the 

(sloth). 

Eat fruit every day like the 

(fruit bat). 

Take lots of exercise like the 

(leopard). Learn 

to swim like the 

(piranha). Provide pictures of 

each creature doing the activity 

to help the children choose the 

correct words. 

Drama 

• Use clothes from the dress-up box to make improvised 

rainforest animal costumes—blue shirt or cloak for a 

blue morpho butterfl y; patterned materials for pythons 

or boa constrictors; spotted or striped materials for 

jaguars or tigers; plastic sunglasses with bright red lens 

(made using red cellophane) for red-eyed tree frogs; 

furry material or blankets for monkeys, chimpanzees 

or gorillas; brightly-coloured feathers glued onto strips 

of material or cardboard for toucans or parrots etc. Add 

animal masks for extra motivation. 

• Using beanbags as ‘babies’, the children walk on four 

legs, like a monkey, carrying their baby on their backs. 

• Place a number of plastic ants in the sandpit for creative 

play. Add leaves for hiding under, carrying on their backs 

or chewing into pulp (to feed fungi in their nests). Add 

others to the block corner for the children to build a 

rainforest. 

• Decorate a hat stand as a tall emergent or canopy tree. 

Tape on cardboard leaves and scrunched up green paper. 

Use plastic frogs to climb the tree or perch in a branch. 

Use individual frogs or families of frogs to act out life in a 

tree in the rainforest. 

• ‘What’s for lunch?’ Children in 

rainforest creature masks sit 

at a cafe table pretending to 

look at a menu. Using their 

knowledge of the rainforest 

food web, they decide what 

to eat. 

• Go on a rainforest safari. 

One child as hunter follows 

potato print paw shapes laid 

down in different colours for each animal. At the end of 

each track, the animal (a child in a mask) either pounces 

on the hunter or runs away. 

• Assist children to sew the edges of simple felt shapes and 

decorate to make and use rainforest animal puppets for 

dramatic play. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6


Visual arts 

• Make the four layers of the 

rainforest. Have the children 

paint three different-sized 

boxes in shades of green 

and a fourth fl at cereal 

box green and brown. 

Place the fl at box on 

the bottom and the 

others, in order, from 

largest to the smallest 

on the top. Glue 

together using strong 

glue. When dry, use 

brown paint or markers to draw trunks or vines on each 

layer. Add cut-out leaf shapes and crumpled or fringed 

paper to complete the trees, bushes and vines to create 

a 3-D effect. Place animals around and on the different 

layers. 

• On strips of paper, the children use potato prints to make 

animal tracks for a variety of animals, leading to a picture 

or photograph of the animal. 

• Use kitchen rolls to make rainforest animals. Cut the roll 

into 5-cm lengths and paint. Colour and cut out different 

animal faces. Glue faces to the rolls. 

• Make a bromeliad. Children decorate two strips of thin 

card (one 3 cm wide, the other 5 cm wide) with markers 

or oil pastels. Use patterned-edged scissors to cut a fancy 

edge on one side of each strip. Tape the wide strip ‘fancy’ 

edge up, to the inside top of the cup and the narrow strip 

to the outside. Gently fold the edges down if desired. 

Place some water in the bottom of the cup with a small 

plastic frog. 

• Use stiff plastic, such as overhead transparency sheets, 

parental assistance and coloured permanent markers 

to create blue morpho butterfl ies to suspend from the 

ceiling. Coffee fi lters, coloured with markers and sprayed 

with water, also make effective butterfl ies. 

• Use painted or traced hand and footprints cut out for tails 

or wings of parrots, butterfl ies or toucans; and bodies of 

bats, frogs, piranha, tigers, jaguars and snakes (multiple 

copies needed for snakes). 

• Make snakes by painting both sides of a paper plate then 

cutting a spiral towards the centre. Add eyes and a tongue 

and create patterns along its length before hanging from 

the ceiling. Stuff old socks or roll clay or playdough into 

lengths for a 3-D version. 

• Make a monkey puppet by attaching fan-folded strips of 

construction paper, as arms and legs, to a cardboard head 

and body. Attach cardboard feet and hands. Use different 

craft techniques and materials to decorate the monkey’s 

face and body. Hold a monkey parade to show many 

different monkey species. 

Society and environment 

• Soak uncooked rice and pasta of different shapes in 

different food colouring and allow to dry. Use to decorate 

a paper plate with the facial features of a rainforest animal 

or as a rainforest plant. 

• Provide the children with yellow and orange paper, 

scissors, black paint (to make fi ngerprint spots etc.) and 

googly eyes to create jaguars. Add pegs for legs to make 

free-standing models for display. 

• Use discarded CDs, feathers, other collage materials, 

googly eyes and strong glue to make parrots or toucans 

to hang. 

• Look at pictures of people who live in the rainforest. 

Investigate and discuss where they live, what they wear 

and eat and how they might get their food. 

• Show pictures and say the names of various plants and 

animals of the rainforest, as well as some human-made 

objects. The children must state whether each is ‘natural’ 

or ‘built/made’; for example, monkey (natural), road 

(built), hut (built), snake (natural), orchid (natural), 

waterfall (natural), bridge (built), fern (natural), truck 

(built) etc. 

• Imagine and discuss what it would be like to live in the 

rainforest. In what ways would it be the same as/different 

from their lives? 

• Make a class collection of (natural) soft rainforest toys 

(frogs, snakes, monkeys, tigers, gorillas, parrots, toucans 

etc.). The children can choose one to talk about in an oral 

presentation. 

• Make a collection of readily available fresh produce 

that comes from rainforest areas, such as pineapple, 

bananas, avocados, corn, sweet potato (yam) and 

mangos. Discuss and decide whether each is a fruit or 

vegetable/what colour it is/whether it grows on the ground 

or in trees etc. 

• Look at pictures of family groups who live in the 

rainforest. Discuss to compare to own family group OR 

paraphrase online stories about children who live in or 

near the rainforest from < http://www.rainforest-alliance. 

org/education.cfm?id=rainforest_stories >. 

• Select cool clothes to wear in a hot, tropical rainforest. 

Ask the children what would be needed to protect them 

from heavy rain showers. 

• Make and wear ‘beaded’ indigenous necklaces. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6


Music 

• All children, sitting in a circle, wear a mask or a laminated 

picture of a different rainforest creature around their necks. 

Start with one ‘animal’ in the centre of the circle. The 

children in the circle chant ‘Deep in the rainforest, what 

can I see? I see a looking at me’. The child in 

the middle calls out an animal’s name to complete the 

chant. The child wearing that mask comes to join him/ 

her in the centre. Continue until all children have left the 

circle and are together in the centre. 

• Laminate coloured pictures of rainforest plants or animals 

(at least as many as the number of children in the class). 

Place them, spread out, on the fl oor. Play appropriate 

music and when the music stops the children must stand 

on a plant or animal; a selected group will then name 

their plants or animals. 

• Listen to recordings of rainforest animal sounds. The 

children use their voices, body percussion or instruments 

to re-create the sounds. 

• Match a given sound to a specifi c plant or animal, rain, 

waterfall or river. Allocate different children to make each 

sound. Compose a class ‘rainforest symphony’. 

• Make up, clap and say simple rhythmic chants for 

rainforest plants and animals; for example, ‘Venus fl y 

trap is very happy; Insects get stuck inside ‘cause she’s 

very snappy’; ‘Blue butterfl y, fl y away. Visit the rainforest 

another day’. 

• Read the story Verdi by Janell Cannon, which is about a 

yellow-coloured baby python. Dance to a favourite song 

while holding a long strip of yellow wool, crepe paper or 

material. 

• Reinforce the concept of the four layers of the rainforest 

by asking the children to move at different levels—high 

(emergent), lower (canopy), lower still (understorey) 

and on the fl oor (for the forest fl oor). Designate different 

animals at these levels and ask the children to move like 

them. Include different tempos (slow sloth, quick ant 

etc.). 

• Add musical sounds to the telling of a rainforest story that 

the children act out. 

Technology (and design) 

• Make and listen to the sound of the rain in the rainforest 

using a rain stick. Make the rain stick, with adult 

assistance, in the following way: Paint a cardboard roll 

and allow to dry. Cover one end with strong plastic wrap 

and secure with a rubber band. Place styrofoam packing 

‘peanuts’, rice or popping corn in 

the open end of the roll and then 

cover the other end in the same 

way as the fi rst. Tip up and down 

to make, and listen to, rain. 

• Practise gluing and joining: fan fold and attach 

paper legs to the bodies of craft tree frogs; fold small 

cardboard strips in half to attach the two halves of 

a paper plate Venus fl y trap together, ensuring they 

can open and shut; connect cardboard rolls using a 

skipping rope to make a long python (determine how 

to stop the rolls from falling off the end); use split 

pins to make jointed animals. 

• Provide a variety of threading materials and string 

or wool to make tribal necklaces, bracelets and 

anklets. 

• From pictures of rainforest tribal huts, design and 

build a rainforest home from natural materials such 

as sticks and leaves. Design and build a bridge in 

the same way, testing for strength and durability by 

placing one or more plastic rainforest animals on it. 

• Design and build a tall, emergent tree using rolled up 

newspaper taped in place. 

• View online stories about children who live in or near the 

rainforest from . 

• Visit and 

play ‘Remember the rainforest’ by matching animal pairs. 

• Visit to view a virtual 

rainforest at night and to fi nd printable photographs of 

animals. 

• Use dead leaves collected 

from home or in the 

playground to create a 

home for an ant or other 

insect in the rainforest. 

• Use construction blocks 

to design a road or bridge 

through a rainforest. 

Provide pictures or books 

to assist. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Teacher background information 

NOTE: For the purposes of accuracy, this unit is titled ‘The rainforest’ instead of ‘The jungle’. This unit introduces animals and 

plants associated with tropical rainforests. All rainforests are jungles but not all jungles are rainforests. 

The world’s rainforests occur around the ‘waist’ of the globe, between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Tropical rainforests are 

always hot and humid because they lie close to the Equator and have a lot of rainfall. 

The rainforests are home to millions of plant and animal species. The plants consume carbon dioxide and generate oxygen so 

rainforests are known as the ‘lungs of the planet’. 

The world’s major tropical rainforests are located in Central and South America, central Africa and Madagascar, Southeast Asia 

and the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. 

Plants create different layers and habitats within the rainforest: 

The forest floor is the lowest layer. It is very dark, so there is little or no plant growth. Vegetation that falls decomposes very 

quickly. Many insects and small creatures can be found on the forest fl oor and up in the trees. Giant anteaters and other large 

creatures live there. 

The understorey receives a little sunlight so plants can grow here. They have developed wide leaves to take in as much 

sunlight as possible. These leaves create more shade on the forest fl oor. 

Emergent 

The canopy forms a roof over the layers beneath. It is a network of leaves and 

branches, teeming with life: insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. 

The emergent layer contains the tallest trees of the rainforest. Flying creatures such 

as birds, bats and butterfl ies are found here. Climbers such as monkeys can also 

reach these treetops. 

Canopy 

Plants are the most numerous living things in the rainforest, feeding the insects which 

in turn become prey to larger but less numerous creatures. 

The balance of nature in the rainforest is under constant threat from human activity. 

The extinction of a single species can create a hole in a food web and have a 

disastrous effect on an ecosystem. 

Some of the animals in various rainforests around the world, and their diet/prey, are 

listed on the facing page. 

Understorey 

Forest floor 

Concepts to be developed 

• A tropical rainforest is found in the hot, humid parts of the world. 

• There are four layers in the rainforest. 

• Rainforests are home to many different plants and animals. 

• Plants and animals feed on each other to form a food web. 

• Humans affect the rainforest by cutting down trees. 

• Some people still live in the rainforest. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Some animals of the rainforest 

and their diet 

Animal Prey/Diet Animal Prey/Diet Animal Prey/Diet Animal Prey/Diet 

giant 

anteater 

ants, termites 

Alexandra’s 

birdwing 

butterfl y 

caterpillar eats 

a toxic pipevine 

plant; adult feeds 

on the liquid 

nectar of fl owers 

blue morpho 

butterfl y 

rotting or 

fermenting fruit 

sloth 

fruit, leaves, 

buds, young 

twigs 

toucan 

fruit, berries, 

small birds, 

lizards, insects 

leaf cutter 

ant 

grow own fungus 

to eat which they 

feed using leaves 

or grass 

gorilla 

leaves, fruit, bark 

parrot 

fruits, nuts, seeds 

red-eyed 

tree frog 

insects, including 

crickets; smaller 

frogs 

poison dart 

frog 

termites, 

crickets, fl ies, 

ants, spiders, 

crustaceans, tiny 

water animals 

rhinoceros 

beetle 

larvae feed on 

rotten wood; 

adults feed on 

nectar, plant sap, 

fruit 

Bengal 

tiger 

antelopes, 

boars, monkeys, 

pigs, birds and 

occasionally 

elephants 

harpy eagle 

sloths, monkeys, 

small mammals 

chimpanzee 

seeds, fruits, 

leaves, bark, 

insects such as 

termites, small 

prey 

macaw 

nuts, fruits, seeds 

spider 

monkey 

fruit, seeds, 

leaves, nuts and 

occasionally 

insects 

southern 

cassowary 

fruit, vegetation, 

insects, fungi 

gibbon 

fruits, leaves, tree 

bark, fl owers, 

plant shoots, 

bird eggs, small 

birds, insects, tree 

frogs, other small 

animals. 

siamang 

fresh leaves, fruit, 

nuts, insects, 

eggs, small 

vertebrates 

lemur 

fruit, leaves, 

sometimes 

insects 

orangutan 

fruit, leaves, bark, 

insects 

anaconda 

rodents, fi sh, 

birds, caiman, 

turtles, larger 

mammals if the 

snake is big 

enough 

okapi 

shoots, buds, 

grass, fruit, fungi, 

leaves 

boa 

constrictor 

birds, small 

rodents (including 

bats), lizards 

but not large 

mammals 

python 

birds, mammals 

of different sizes 

including deer 

and pigs and 

on very rare 

occasions, 

humans 

manatee 

oceanic/ 

freshwater plants 

hoatzin 

leaves, fruit 

piranha 

smaller fi sh, 

larger fi sh and 

small mammals if 

there is a school 

of piranhas 

quetzel 

fruits (the 

avocado family), 

insects, small 

vertebrates such 

as lizards and 

frogs 

jaguar 

a variety of 

animals— turtles, 

tapirs, deer 

great 

hornbill 

fruit, insects, 

lizards, snakes, 

small mammals 

capybara 

grass, fruit, water 

plants 

black 

caiman 

fi sh, turtles, birds, 

capybara, larger 

mammals 

howler 

monkey 

leaves, fruit, 

maggots 

worms 

organic matter 

in soil such as 

animal parts and 

bacteria 

bats 

fruit, nectar, 

blood, insects 

(depending on 

bat) 

tree snail 

fungus, lichen, 

dead plant 

material 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Red-eyed tree frog 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6 

Instructions: Colour or paint the parts of the frog, except the eyes. Fan fold strips of paper and attach for legs and arms. Attach feet and hands. Add red spots or sequins for eyes. Alternatively, use as a template to 

trace the frog shape onto the back of a painted sheet of paper or as inspiration to create a tree frog from coloured paper shapes. Painted handprints may be substituted for hands and feet, if desired.

Colour the toucan 

Instructions: Follow the key to colour the toucan. Use the picture as a guide for a shape picture—circle for head, oval for body, rectangle for tail, triangle for beak. 

1 = yellow 

2 = blue 

3 = orange 

4 = red 

5 = green 

6 = brown 

7 = black 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Sloth game 

1 2 

3 


4 

5 6 

7 8 

9 10 

ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6 

Instructions: Copy one page for each child. The teacher randomly calls out numbers from 1 to 10. Children tick, stamp or cross each numeral as it is called out. Or photocopy two copies of the sheet onto 

card to play a memory game.

Rainforest shapes 

Instructions: Colour the pictures or use as inspiration for the children to make other animals or trees using attribute blocks or coloured paper shapes. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Tiger mask 

Instructions: Copy onto card. Colour or paint and cut out the tiger mask. Cut out the eyes. Punch holes at the sides and thread elastic through, or staple elastic to card. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Food chain 

Wonderful rainforests 

1 

Some strange plants grow in the rainforest. 

Instructions: Enlarge to A3 size. Colour the pictures. Cut out the strips. Put the strips in order. Staple them together to make a book. 

2 

Some animals eat plants. 

3 

Some animals eat the plant-eaters. 

4 

Some plants eat animals, too! 

5 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Recipes 

Mango milkshake 

Ingredients 

• 500 mL milk 

• 250 g vanilla yoghurt 

• 500 g chopped mango 

Instructions 

• Mix all ingredients in blender. Put in fridge to cool. Pour and serve. 

Chocolate and coconut bread 

Ingredients 

• 1 slice of fresh bread 

• 1 teaspoon chocolate spread 

• 1 teaspoon dried coconut 

Instructions 

• Spread chocolate spread all over the bread. Sprinkle coconut on top. 

Cut bread into four triangles and serve. 

Ingredients 

Guava delight 

• 1 cup pureed guava pulp 

• 1 cup evaporated milk 

• 3 

/ 4 

cup honey 

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 

Instructions 

• Pour evaporated milk into a bowl and leave in freezer for 

20 minutes until chilled. Whip until thickened. Add honey 

and lemon juice to pureed guava and mix to combine. 

Gently fold milk into fruit and pour into freezer moulds. 

Freeze for about 6 hours. 

Tropical muffin pizza 

Ingredients 

• 1 English muffi n sliced in half 

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste 

• 1 

/ 2 

sliced avocado 

• 1 

/ 2 

cup chopped pineapple 

• 1 

/ 2 

cup grated cheese 

Instructions 

• Spread tomato paste over the cut side of the two muffi n 

halves. Place slices of avocado and pineapple pieces on 

top. Cover with grated cheese. Cook in oven at 200 ºC for 

15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly then serve. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Avocado spread 

Recipes 

Ingredients 

• 1 avocado 

• 1 crushed clove of garlic 

• 1 small tub natural fromage frais 


• 1 

/ 2 

teaspoon salt 

Instructions 

• Slice avocado and remove stone. Remove fl esh and blend 

with remaining ingredients. Spoon into bowl and chill in 

fridge before serving. 

(If fromage frais is not available, try using low-fat creamed 

cheese instead.) 

Fig surprise 

Ingredients 

• 1 

/ 4 

cup chocolate chips 

• 1 

/ 2 

cup chopped, toasted almonds* 

• 12 fresh fi gs cut in half 

• vanilla ice-cream 

Instructions 

• Pre-heat oven to 180º C. Combine chocolate chips and 

almonds in a bowl. Press a teaspoon of mix into each fi g 

half. Spray a baking tray lightly with oil. Place fi gs on tray 

and bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla icecream. 

Tropical fruit salad 

Ingredients 

• 1 peeled, seeded and diced ripe papaya 

• 1 diced banana 

• 3 tablespoons chopped, fresh coriander 

• 3 tablespoons lime juice 

Instructions 

• Combine all ingredients and chill before serving. 

Tropical fruit punch 

Ingredients 

• juice of 1 orange 

• juice of 1 pink grapefruit 

• 3 tablespoons lime juice 


Instructions 

• Combine all ingredients 

and chill before serving. 

Macadamia butter 

Ingredients 

• macadamia nuts (or nuts of choice)* 

Instructions 

• Grind or process nuts until a butter. Chill 2 minutes to thicken then use as a spread (in place of peanut butter) or dessert 

topping. 

*Be aware of children with allergies to nuts. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Display ideas 

Rainforest layers 

• Cover a wall with child-made rainforest plants, clearly showing the four layers: emergent, canopy, understorey and forest 

fl oor. Include hanging vines (liana). Children make different 3-D animals using a range of craft techniques and materials and 

locate them in the appropriate place in the rainforest layers display. Include a river for fi sh and water-loving amphibians and 

reptiles. Label each animal or unusual plant. (See a list of rainforest animals on page 69.) 

Rainforest gallery 

• Children choose a rainforest creature or plant to match the initial sound of their own names. For example, Jamilah jaguar, 

Amelia anaconda, Freddie fl ytrap, Kevin kapok, Peta piranha etc. They colour/decorate and frame with coloured construction 

paper, a picture of their chosen creature/plant. In black pen on a silver-grey paper name plaque, label each picture. Display 

pictures in alphabetical order. 

Swinging vines 

• Children hang models of rainforest creatures across the classroom using green cardboard or twisted paper, thick string or 

wool, or real vine from the garden. 

Colourful parrots 

• Ask the children to use fi ngers or brushes to make 

colourful patterns on a small paper plate. When dry, 

add a circular head cut from coloured paper or card 

and a coloured, cut-out pattern for wings, beaks, eyes 

and head feathers. (Alternatives: Painted handprints, 

allowed to dry and cut out may be used for wings, 

triangular shapes for beaks, feathers (in a collage) for 

head pieces and googly eyes.) 

Rainforest library 

• Provide a variety of suitable books about rainforests— 

both fi ction and nonfi ction—for the reading corner. Suspend a green sheet from the ceiling over the area so that the children 

can read about the rainforest while sitting under a green canopy. 

Rainforest food webs 

• As a class, discuss, place, connect and display pictures of plants and animals in different food webs. Join them together 

using paper chains. 

Woven rainforest canopy 

• Weave strips of green and brown material and thin, fallen branches through the spaces of an old fi shing net and suspend it 

from the ceiling of the classroom to replicate the emergent and canopy layers of the rainforest. The children underneath the net 

can pretend to be any plant or animal living in the rainforest. 

Live plant display 

• Refer to science cross-curricular activities, game activity. 

Hand print treetops 

• Use yellow and shades of green paint to make 

prints of the children’s hands or feet. When dry, 

have the children cut them out and display them 

near the ceiling as treetops. Use fl at sheets of 

brown paper, hanging down from them as tree 

trunks. 

Household items displays 

• Hang a class-painted shower curtain as a 

rainforest background; use an old hat or coat 

stand, decorated, as tall trees to support craft 

items. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Literature resources – 1 

Stories 

• Rain, rain, rainforest by Brenda Z Guiberson 

• The great kapok tree by Lynne Cherry 

• The umbrella by Jan Brett 

• Slowly, slowly, slowly said the sloth by Eric Carle 

• Way up high in a tall green tree by Jan Peck 

• The rainforest grew all around by Susan K Mitchell 

• Over in the jungle: A rainforest rhyme by Marianne Berkes 

Nonfiction 

• Rainforest foodchains by Molly Aloian & Bobbie Kalman 

• Rainforests by Lucy Baumann 

• A rainforest habitat by Molly Aloian & Bobbie Kalman 

• Tropical rainforest by Donald Silver 

• A walk in the rainforest by Kristin Joy Pratt 

• Nature’s green umbrella by Gail Gibbons 

Songs, action rhymes, fingerplays and poems 

I’ve been working in the rainforest 

(Sung to: ‘I’ve been working on the railroad’) 

I’ve been working in the rainforest, 

All among the trees. 


Where I saw the bats and bees. 

Parrots, butterfl ies and toucans, 

Monkeys and hummingbirds galore, 

Frogs and snakes and spotted leopards 

On the rainforest fl oor! 


All among the green. 


Where the plant life must be seen! 

Ferns and mosses and lianas, 

Orchids and honeysuckle, too. 

Oh, how special is the rainforest, 

A magic place come true! 

Rainforest animals singing game 

(A bag with small animal fi gures inside is required.) 

We’re going through the rainforest, 

We’re going through the rainforest, 

What can we see? 

What can we see? 

(Sing while tapping hands on knees to keep the beat but also 

imitate feet walking through the rainforest. Ask a child to select 

an animal from the bag, then either sing a song about this 

animal, say a rhyme, tell a story or just discuss the animal. 

Repeat a number of times.) 

The layers of the rainforest 

(Tune: ‘If you’re happy and you know it’) 

There are four layers in the rainforest. 

4 Layers! 


4 Layers! 

Forest fl oor (crouch down), understorey (stand up and bend 

over slightly), canopy (stand and put your arms over your 

head like an umbrella), emergent (stand on toes and reach up 

high). 


I’m a little monkey 

(Tune: ‘I’m a little teapot’) 

I’m a little monkey in the tree 

Swinging by my tail so happily 

I can leap and fl y from tree to tree 

I have lots of fun as you see. 

I’m a little monkey watch me play 

Munching on bananas every day 

Lots of monkey friends to play with me 

We have fun up in the tree. 

Deep in the rainforest 

Deep in the rainforest, in the shade of the trees, 

Along creeps a jaguar, hunting for a meal. 

What can he spy? What can he sniff? 

Out jumps the jaguar! 

It’s 

for tea. 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

Literature resources – 2 

Songs, action rhymes, fingerplays and poems 

Carnivorous plants 

The Venus flytrap 

Five buzzing fl ies 

Near the rainforest fl oor, 

Snap! goes the fl ytrap. 

Now there’s only four. 

Four buzzing fl ies ... etc. 

The sundew 

The colourful sundew shining in the sun, 

Waits for its prey – tentacles waving, 

That’s number one! 

The colourful sundew shining in the sun, 

Waits for its prey – tentacles waving, 

That’s number two! ... etc. 

The pitcher 

The pitcher plant opens its hood. 

In pops its prey – the nectar tastes so good! 

Down goes the prey. 

Down goes the hood. 

Mmm that was tasty. 

Time for some more, so ... 

The pitcher plant opens its hood ... etc. 

Three talking toucans 

Three talking toucans sitting in a tree 

(Hold up 3 fi ngers.) 

The fi rst one turned and squawked at me! 

(Squawk! Squawk!) 

Three little toucans sitting in a row 

(Hold up 3 fi ngers.) 

The second one said ‘I fl ap my wings. Watch me go!’ 

(Flap wings.) 

Three little toucans sitting side by side 

(Hold up 3 fi ngers) 

The third one said ‘I can open my beak wide!’ 

(Hold hands like a beak and open out.) 

Three Red-Eyed tree frogs 

Three little frogs sitting in a tree. 

The fi rst one turned and jumped towards me! 

Three little frogs hopping all about. 

The second one said ‘At night’s when I come out!’ 

Three little frogs leaping tree to tree 

The third one said ‘Hey, wait for me!’ 

Notes: 


ISBN 978-1-74126-966-6

RIC-20969 Early years Places - The Rainforest

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