Introduce preschool children to a tropical environment.
Every day is a new exploration opportunity for preschool children. Let your preschoolers explore and discover beyond the boundaries of the classroom with tropical-themed activities. Provide opportunities for the children to navigate a tropical rainforest with chattering monkeys, participate in a luau and help to create a tropical fruit snack. Combine tropical activities with imagination for preschool learning fun.
Tropical Rainforest Game
Make a tropical rainforest obstacle course outdoors. Suspend a hula hoop from a rope. Cover the hula hoop with branches and let the children climb through it. Place additional branches in the outside play area for the children to climb over and under. Hang a rope from the end of the monkey bars where the children can pretend that they are climbing a vine. Remind your rainforest explorers to make monkey sounds as they climb across the monkey bars.
Luau Activities
Provide hula skirts and leis for the children to wear. Another option is to let the children make their own leis. Provide yarn and brightly colored tissue paper squares. Use a hole puncher to place holes in the tissue squares. Demonstrate thread the tissue squares on the yarn. Place a paper coconut tree on a wall and let the children play "pin the coconut on the tree." Show the children play sea animal limbo. Children approach and go under the limbo stick by slithering like an eel, walking sideways like a crab or wiggling like a jellyfish.
Tropical Snacks
Offer the children a variety of tropical foods. Include bananas, coconut, papaya, mangoes and chocolate. Graph the children's taste preferences. Let the children help you prepare chocolate-covered bananas. Halve the bananas and show the children insert a wooden popsicle stick into the bananas. Place a package of chocolate dip mix into a container of hot water until the chocolate melts. Pour the melted chocolate into a cup. Let the children dip and swirl a banana into the chocolate. Place the dipped bananas on a wax paper-lined tray and freeze.
Vines, Flowers And Sloths For A Rainforest Wall
Make vines from brown paper grocery bags. Fold each bag into thirds and cut the bags into one-and-a-half-inch strips. Twist the strips using both hands. Staple two or more strips together to make the vines the desired length. Let the children make tropical flowers and large leaves from construction paper. Make copies of a sloth coloring page for each child. Ask the children to color and cut out the sloths. Hang the sloths from the brown grocery bag vines.
Tags: children climb, children make, children play, chocolate into, coconut tree