Around the World: Exploring the Brazilian Rain Forest!

Whenever I introduce a country's flag, I point out familiar
colors and shapes my son can recognize. 

Bem vindo ao Brasil! Today our world travel adventure took us to another South American country. I introduced our journey with the same continents song and airplane song presented in this post and as soon as we touched down, my son was greeted with a new stamp for his passport. We learned how to greet someone in Portuguese and looked at a photo of the Brazilian flag in a book of world flags we borrowed from our local library. We talked about the rain forests in Brazil and looked at some non-fiction books about rain forests also borrowed from our library.

My little monkey loved gluing ears to this paper plate
mask and coloring it a bit with crayons as we acted out
the action rhyme, "Five Little Monkeys."

Since we are learning about the letter "Mm" this week, we began with some activities centered around monkeys. This fun action rhyme is a great one for toddlers preschoolers:

Five Little Monkeys
Five little monkeys swinging from a tree
  [hold up hand with five fingers]
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "you can't catch me!"
[wag finger back and forth, teasingly]
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
And snapped [clap] that monkey right out of the tree!
[hands together, wiggle like an alligator toward child/children]

We used our journal and stickers for a "Five Little Monkeys"
picture and math activity.

We talked about other plants and animals found in the rain forest. Our library books made a great

I based our tree frog scavenger
hunt on an activity found in
this fabulous book. I highly
recommend it!

resource. Even though children's non-fiction can be a bit wordy for very early readers, the photographs are invaluable and you can paraphrase or select particularly relevant passages to read together. Never underestimate the non-fiction side of your library's children's department! Seeing actual photographs of topics that they are learning or curious about helps children to feel connected to people and things outside of their immediate environment and can help them relate to people and things inside of their immediate environment!

We learned a bit about tree frogs and toads in the rain forest. Looking at photographs together, we were able to see how some tree frogs and toads are brightly colored giving predators (animals that might want to eat them) a warning that they are poisonous and not safe to eat. Others have colors that blend in with their surroundings, helping them to camouflage. I am all about teaching little kids big words--this increases vocabulary and confidence in communication. Next, we went on our very own tree frog scavenger hunt. While my son was busy finishing his supper, I hid 5 plastic frogs in our play area. I explained that we were going to be rain forest explorers and provided a magnifying glass, binoculars and a plastic jar to fill with our findings. We needed to find 5 hidden tree frogs. Some might be camouflaged and some might be brightly colored. I offered clues along the way, and my little explorer had a blast collecting the frogs in his jar!

Want to do more?

Gross Motor: Rain forest Yoga! We found a great rain forest themed yoga video on YouTube via Cosmic Kids. My little Yogi LOVES this series (and so do I)!

Play Soccer or learn some Judo! Soccer is a popular Brazilian sport and Brazilian Judo is a widely practiced martial art across the world. If weather permits, take a soccer ball outside to play together. You can also teach your little athlete that Brazilians refer to this sport as "football," rather than "soccer." My husband happens to be trained in Brazilian Judo, so my son has been learning some moves with him over his short life and some Portuguese vocabulary to go with it. You can likely find some great videos online or at your local library.

Cooking Activity: talk about foods that grow in the rain forest. We learned that bananas and cocoa beans are found in rain forests. We baked banana chocolate chip bread together that will surely be enjoyed as a Shabbos treat this week (if there is any left by then)!

My little Yogi

 Sorting Game: Create a large poster with a vertical line down the center. Label one side "animals found in the rain forest" and the other side "animals not found in the rain forest." Alternatively, you can use masking tape for your line directly on your floor and sentence strips or smaller sheets of paper to label your categories. Using stickers, pictures cut from magazines or printed from the computer, toy animals or even felt ones if you happen to have a flannel board set to sort your rain forest dwellers from those who live in other terrains. Younger ones may need more assistance and clues (you can use those fabulous library books as a reference!) while older children may be able to work through the activity more independently.

Animal Antics: Play a game of rain forest animal charades. Using pictures of rain forest animals and/or cards with animal names written on them, invite each player to act out their animal while others try to guess what it is. Alternatively, play "I'm Thinking of a Rain Forest Animal." On his/her turn, a player thinks of a rain forest animal without disclosing it to the audience. "I'm thinking of an animal, can you guess what it is?" Players will have an opportunity to take three guesses before asking for a clue. The player will then provide a clue about the animal (like what color(s) it is, how it moves, what it eats, etc.) and guessers can continue to try to solve the riddle, asking for clues as needed. Whomever is first to accurately guess the animal in question gets to play the next turn. This is a great game to play on a car trip or while waiting for an appointment or a restaurant meal to arrive.

We are having a fabulous time on our Brazilian Rain Forest adventure. Next week we are leaving South America and heading to a new continent: Europe... See you there and until then, pleasant travels and happy playing!