A whole month of rainforest activities for toddlers including arts and crafts, life skills, letter recognition, and more!
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Recommended Books:
The illustrations in this book are beautiful and inspire conversation about the rainforest animals!
National Geographic Kids books are excellent educational books that introduce concepts right at your kiddos level!
Another fun story to introduce your little on to the wonders of the rainforest.
Recommended toys:
We love Lego Duplo around here, and this set is no different! Great for creative play and sensory bins!
The Schleich animals are great for this Activity Plan! They are very realistic and great for play and props for art projects!
Rainforest Activities Plan:
Sensory bins are a great way to introduce new subjects to toddlers. The opportunities for creative play, learning, and communication are endless! This is what we included in our rainforest sensory bin:
- Green dyed rice
- Shredded green paper
- Rainforest book
- Poison dart frogs
- Leglo Duplo trees
- Bowls and scoops
This 2 part activity gives your toddler the opportunity to practice counting, number order, and fine motor skills. You can find the printouts for this activity in our Rainforest Adventure Bundle.
For the first part, your little one will cut out the numbered leaves and then glue them on the matching number on the vine. This will help them to practice number order for 1-5.
For the second part of the activity, cut out green leaves from construction paper, putting a hole in the corner of each. Then give your toddler a pipe cleaner “vine” and encourage them to put the leaves on the fine. They will practice their lacing skills and you can even have them count the leaves for more number practice.
Process art is an amazing activity for toddlers because it allows them to exercise their creativity in freedom. You can read all about the benefits of process art in this article by the NAEYC.
For this activity, Little Miss was given rainforest plants for inspiration. She used different tools to add color to her paper and we talked about the colors she saw, the shapes, and the texture of the leaves.
Little Miss loves working in the garden, as most toddlers do. For this life skills activity, she got her very own plants to take care of. We found rainforest plants at the nursery and she planted them in her own pot and now has the responsibility of keeping it watered.
Poison dart frogs are beautiful animals and so fun to talk about with toddlers. This fun printout activity will lead your toddler through the life cycle of the poison dart frog!
Find the printouts in our Rainforest Adventure Bundle.
You and your little one can make a beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly print with this quick and easy painting activity.
If you have a Butterfly House near you, visit it and try to find the Blue Morpho butterfly. Otherwise, look at pictures of this beautiful blue butterfly and talk about how bright blue it is and any other fun facts about butterflies your little one may enjoy.
This rainforest puzzle was a very fun activity to do while reading National Geographic Kids Rain Forests. Little Miss loves these books!
You can find the complete printout for this activity in our Rainforest Adventure Bundle.
Before beginning the activity, you will need to cut out the “puzzle pieces”. If your little one is handy with scissors they should be able to cut out the animal cards on their own.
As you read the book and look at the pictures, help your little one complete the puzzle and glue it to a large piece of paper. Then they can add the animals to the part of of the rainforest that they live in.
This rainforest multimedia project is a great way for toddlers to learn new creative skills and the letter “R”! Using just paper scraps, paint, and a little glue, your little one will learn a little about the rainforest while they make their own lush and green treescape.
How to Make a Rainforest Multimedia Art Project for Toddlers
Aren’t sloths the cutest? Your little one will learn how to draw their very own sloth, as well as how to add some furry texture with this fun letter recognition craft! Get out your paints and your pencils, this is a fun one!
How to Draw a Sloth with Preschoolers
Create a cute little toucan with this fun and easy cut and glue paper craft. Great for practicing fine motor skills like cutting, this can also be modified by just ripping the paper!
Incorporate letter recognition by adding the “T” is for Toucan or just make a colorful bird to display.
Fun and Easy Toucan Paper Craft for Toddlers
This “U” is for umbrella craft project with sparkly raindrops is so fun to make! Make it as a standalone art project or include the “U” for letter recognition practice. You can even make just the umbrellas!
All you need are some coffee filters and popsicle sticks to make these colorful umbrellas!
How to Make Sparkly Raindrops and Umbrella Craft Project for Kids
Practice number order with these cute toucan counting cards, found in the Rainforest Adventure Bundle.
Before beginning the activity have the cards cut out. You will have strips with numbers and blank spaces for missing numbers, as well as standalone number squares.
Allow your toddler to match the numbers to the missing spaces to finish the number sequences, offering help and reminders as needed.
*If you want to do this activity over and over, laminate the cards and use sticky Velcro dots on the cards!
Uh-oh! The poison dart frogs got in the paint! This is a fun process art activity for your little one, but it might be a little messy!
Let your toddler pick three paint colors and put them on a plate. Dip the frogs in paint and make them hop across the page to create patterns and colorful footprints!
24 pages of Rainforest fun! Perfect for 3-4 year old’s who love toucans, sloths, poison dart frogs and the rainforest, this bundle encourages letter recognition, counting, fine motor skills, and of course creativity!
What you will find inside:
- coloring sheets
- color by number
- cut and paste activity pages
- letter recognition worksheets
- counting activities
- number ordering worksheets
Provide your little one with blocks, Lego Duplo, animals, craft sticks, and other building materials in an open box for creative play. After reading a rainforest story, like those suggested above, allow your toddler to create their own rainforest!
This activity is great for critical thinking, fine motor skills, and creativity! Just sit back and watch as they create and build!
Another counting activity for early math skills, print out this activity sheet from the rainforest adventure bundle and get out the poison dart frogs. Your little one can match the frogs to how many are on the page, counting as they go to make sure they get the right amount!
*Add a fine motor skill element by giving them tweezers to move the frogs from the bowl to the page.
If you love this month of activities, check out our other month activity plans:
