Put several plastic jungle animals in your dramatic play area. Also put a dish of water, a tray of dirt, and a pile of grass or hay in the area. Have your children put the animals in their appropriate habitat. Talk to your children about the different layers of the jungle.

• Emergents - The tallest trees in the jungle reaching heights of up to 270 ft. Animals found here include the harpy eagle, squirrel monkey, and hummingbirds.
• Understory - The layer just under the canopy has dim light and the interior is moist and cool. The trees smaller with thin trunks. Vines, shrubs, and small ferns are plentiful. Leaf-eating animals and insect-eating birds live. Some animals include the toucan, spider monkey, ocelot, iguana.
• Forest floor - Few flowering plants exist on the floor. Less than 1% of the suns light reaches the floor. Ferns, herbs, mosses, fungi, and broad-leafed plants grow on the floor. There are a few small gaps where sunlight gets through and supporst shrubs and grasses. There are a lot of fungi, termites, bacteria and insects that live off of fallen trees. Animals living in this part include snakes and insects. Larger prey (lions and tigers) live on the outskirts of some jungles.

Fill a clear plastic cup ¾ full with potting soil. Plant any nonpoisonous plant cuttings in the soil. Make sure to cover the roots well. Water lightly. Tape a second cup on top of the first so that the mouths of the cup touch each other. Place in a area where the cups can easily be seen by the children and also get sunlight. As the water in the terrarium evaporates, it condenses on top and then rains back down to the plant. If you leave it, adding water occasionally you can grow small plants in this jungle Put small plants in an aquarium during Rain forest week and let the children view a "real" Jungle

Everything Preschool >> Themes  >> Jungle >> Science