Rainforest Mural

During our country study of Brazil, we spent some extra time learning about the rainforest. I had the girls choose a project to show what they learned. They talked about making pop-up books or a game with trivia questions, but settled on making a large rainforest mural.

The girls wanted a tall mural so they could put the animals in the right “layer” of the rainforest. We taped two pieces of light blue poster board together and painted the background with brushes and stamps cut from kitchen sponges.

For the animals, we used a combination of photos printed from Google images and coloring pages from Jan Brett’s The Umbrella coloring mural and Rainforest Alliance.

The girls used our rainforest books to decide where to place each animal. This was great practice for doing book research and using an index.

Our favorite rainforest books:

• A is for Anaconda: A Rainforest Alphabet
• Eye Wonder: Rain Forest
• Nature’s Green Umbrella
• One Small Square: Tropical Rain Forest
• Rain, Rain, Rain Forest
• The Great Kapok Tree

Websites:

Rainforest Alliance Kids’ Corner – online games, coloring pages, virtual rainforest visits, stories, and more

Rainforest Heroes (Rainforest Action Network) – facts & photos, ways to help save rainforests, rainforest heroes

National Geographic Kids – Tropical Rainforest Photos (you can also research specific animals and countries on this site)

What kinds of projects have your kids been working on? Share a link so we can check them out!