A RAINFOREST LEARNING FUN DAY
Welcome to our “Adventures in Nature Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities all themed to exploring nature – rainforests, mountains, caves, volcanos and more! For this day, we focused on rainforests, rainforest layers, food found in rainforests, and read a bit about the Amazon!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
There is sooo much that you can learn about the rainforest! Squeezing it into one day hardly seems to do it justice, but we focused on what rainforest was and the different layers found within it.
If you need a few references, these are the ones that helped us explain to our little ones:
- Layers of the Rainforest from bioexplorer.net
- Rainforest by kids.britannica.com
- Rainforest Habitat by kids.nationalgeographic.com
AND just for fun, if you’ve got some extra time, these games from pbs.org are a fun little, educational diversion 🙂
- Rocky Mountain Roundup (Interactive Game). Photo scavenger hunt.
- Mountain Scramble: An Ecosystem Game (Interactive Game). Learn to make sure all the animals on the mountain
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Explore the Rainforest! | Ecology for Kids by SciShowKids (4m)
- 25 Facts About the AMAZON RAINFOREST | 25 FACTS by Colossal Cranium (12m)
- The Magic School Bus – In the Rainforest S03E11
- Bubble Guppies – Swinging in theRainforest S05E18
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we thought it’d be fun to snack on some food that are commonly found in the rainforest. We brought up the webpage: 7 Everyday Foods from the Amazon Rainforest from rainforest-alliance.org and had some yummy bananas, blueberries, and of course chocolate! Our little ones were a bit surprised that some of these were very familiar already!
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
- Where Is the Amazon? By Sarah Fabiny (part of the Where Is? series)
- Amazon Rainforest (TIME for Kids) by
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: NATURE, EXPLORATION, RAINFOREST
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you could be any animal in the rainforest for a day, which one would it be and why?
- What would you pack in your backpack if you had to travel through the rainforest for a few days?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
- Layers of the Rainforest (Painting Swatch) – We picked up a green paint swatch and let the kids decorate with the rainforest layer names as well as what might be found in those layers.
- Rainforest Sticks (Paper Towel Tube) – While you can definitely create a simple rainforest stick with just a cardboard tube and beads, beans, or rice, this tutorial from giffofcuriosity.com shows you how you can add a bit of variation so that the sounds come out a bit more ‘rainforest-like’: DIY rain stick craft that actually sounds like rain!
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
If you’re looking for a fun long-term project to showcase how plants interact, check out this Creating Your Own Rainforest Terrarium. There are also some kid-friendly kits with unicorn or mermaid terrarium kits if you don’t want to start from scratch.
We also picked up a small Forest Lego Kit: Lego Friends Forest Waterfall Kit – though it’s not exactly a rainforest set, it was still fun for the kids to create and stretch their imaginations while building 🙂
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Nature-Themed Day, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
