The jungle is a canvas of vibrantly painted textures, patterns, and colors. Together, we can bring the vivid world of the jungle right into our classrooms. Create vibrant, eye-catching masterpieces that display your budding artists’ inner Picasso.
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Rainforest Lesson Plans
Rainforest Leaf Prints
Jungle Process Art
Leaf prints are not just a fall activity. They are the perfect process art for our jungle leaf print paintings.
The rainforest leaf prints are vibrant and colorful and perfectly capture the different shades and textures you would find on a rainforest adventure.
We created these leaf prints with different shades of green paint. Once we were happy with our leaf prints, we added tissue paper flowers for the finishing touches.
The flowers add a little something ‘extra’ and stand out among the green leaf prints to make a beautiful leaf print masterpiece!
Materials:
Blue Morpho Butterfly Craft
Jungle Art Activities
In Chinese culture, butterflies symbolize love and the human soul. This is probably why I was drawn to purchase a ridiculously expensive framed blue morpho butterfly when expecting my first daughter.
Instead of purchasing a blue morpho butterfly, you and your toddlers can create your very own!
The butterfly craft is simple. Paint construction paper in different shades of blue or use paper in different shades of blue. Rip the blue papers into small pieces and glue them onto a black paper plate to create a one-of-a-kind blue morpho butterfly.
Don’t forget to add antennae (curled strips of black paper) and an abdomen to complete the butterfly craft!
Materials:
- black paper plates
- shades of blue paper
- black paper
- glue
Rainforest directed Drawings
Step-by-Step Drawings for Kids
There are two kinds of people in this world: one who follows a recipe to a T (me) and the one who wistfully throws in spices and butter, measuring with the heart (my husband).
While I know some kids can naturally see and draw objects, many of our kiddos need specific instructions in order to learn how to draw (like me).
These rainforest directed drawings provide easy-to-follow steps for drawing a gorilla, snake, and monkey, making art achievable for all who try.
After your toddlers feel the success of drawing these jungle animals, they won’t want to stop drawing rainforest scenes!
Materials:
- Jungle Directed Drawings
- paper
- black markers
- watercolors/crayons
Paper plate Parrot
Spin Art for Kids
Spin art is one of our favorite process art ideas, so whenever we have the chance to incorporate some spin art, we do!
For this spin art activity, we used our trusty salad spinner along with blue, yellow, and red paint. Tip: Cut the head after spinning so the paper plate fits firmly in the salad spinner.
The paper plates captured the vibrant colors to create the head and body of each parrot.
Once we finished with the salad spinner, we added tail feathers, a beak, an eye, and feet to complete our rainforest parrots.
Materials:
- paper plates
- red, yellow, and blue paint
- craft feathers
- orange, white, and black paper
- circle hole punches
Snake Prints
Exploring Pattern in Art
Snakes are covered in different patterns: spots, stripes, diamonds, and circles, so our next jungle art activity is all about patterns.
Need some cool stamps to make textured patterns on your snakes? Head to the kitchen to grab forks, potato mashers, meat tenderizers, and cotton swabs. Okay, that last item may not be in your kitchen, but you get the idea.
Then, dip the tool in black paint, press gently onto your snake, and lift it to reveal your awesome pattern.
After the black paint has dried, slither on some neon colors using paint sticks, an awesome medium for preschoolers to get creative without all of the mess that real paint involves.
Materials:
- plain snake printouts
- kitchen tools (forks, potato mashers, meat tenderizers, etc.)
- cotton swabs
- black paint
- paint sticks
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MORE Rainforest Activities for Preschoolers
Envision vibrant, jungle theme crafts displayed on your walls and bulletin boards during your rainforest theme this year! Let your students’ art skills shine through each hands-on jungle craft as your toddlers explore the rainforest.
