Jungle Fun

Wow!  I can't believe it's almost 2015!  Half the school year is already over, and another calendar year is on it's way out.  Back in February, we studied the Jungle for several weeks.  I had an idea to "bring the jungle" to our students, since there was no way to bring the children to the jungle here in Louisiana.  So I convinced the teacher I worked with to help me decorate our room in a jungle theme.  We used items we both already had at home such as her cheetah pillows, fake flowers from my wedding and my king size black canopy.  

Brown bulletin board paper was twisted into vines and hung them from the ceiling.  Green leaves made from lightweight bulletin board paper were added on the vines.  I also made some tissue paper flowers for the some of the vines. Not shown, several large sections of green bulletin board paper were put on the ceiling to make the jungle "canopy" more green and "lush". 

The loft was turned into "Baloo's Block Bungalow".  

On the other side of our loft, was a waterfall.  The steps to create the waterfall: 1.put up brown bulletin board paper and paint a stone design on it 2. add crumpled turquoise bulletin board paper for the water.  3. add fake flowers and/or vines.  I used flowers I had from my wedding.

The dramatic play center was turned into a Jungle Tour company.  I made binoculars for the children out of toilet paper tubes, cheetah duct tape, and yarn. I made mini tiki torches using cheetah duct tape covered styrofoam cups filled with orange, yellow and red tissue paper to resemble fire.

The front of some of our shelves were turned into jeeps.  Our children brought stuffed jungle animals to school, as did we, so there were animals to see on the "jungle tours".  Our children had a lot of fun taking each other, and visitors such as our principal, on jungle tours.  We also made some jungle animals at art to display around the room.  We made lions, giraffes, chameleons, elephants, monkeys, toucans and tree frogs.

                  

                            

 We also did a jungle explorer writing activity. **** Original idea seen on Buzzing About Second Grade blog!!!  Go to Buzzing About Second Grade blog for copies of the report, pattern and directions!!!   And we did a project about the four layers of the jungle.

We enjoyed the jungle unit, and can't wait to teach it again in the new year.  I hope this year's kids enjoy it as much as last year's kids did!  

~Christa~