Rainforest Wildlife

Rainforest Wildlife lesson plan

Investigate how living things depend on each other for survival needs, then use color blending to make a unique rainforest landscape of animals, plants, and insects.

  • 1.

    Become familiar with living things in the rainforest through books, video, and computer experiences. Make a list of plant and animal life in the rainforest. Discuss how plants and animals depend on each other in that natural environment.

  • 2.

    On a large sheet of white paper, outline a rainforest scene, including both plants and animals, with Crayola® Crayons.

  • 3.

    With Crayola Washable Kid's Paint and Paint Brushes, mix red, blue, yellow, black, and white to blend unique colors. Mix hues on a washable surface such as a recycled foam produce tray, or on a paper plate. Experiment to find ways to lighten and darken colors.

  • 4.

    Paint over and inside the crayon outlines to illustrate a richly dense Rainforest Wildlife environment.

Benefits

  • Children investigate how living things depend on one another for food, shelter, and other needs.
  • Children create artwork depicting a variety of living things thriving in an interdependent rainforest environment.
  • Students blend primary colors, black, and white to create new shades and tints, and paint over the crayon using a resist technique.

Adaptations

  • Assess children's understanding of the types of plant and animal life found in the rainforest.
  • Each child chooses the role of a living thing from the rainforest. Children divide themselves into two groups: consumers (those that eat other living things) and producers (those that provide nourishment for other living things). Identify life that could
  • Younger children act out the movements and sounds of their animals, perhaps as a dramatic response to a story about the rainforest.
  • Younger children and those with special needs may benefit from short practice sessions experimenting with blending colors. Students can cut out their small painted objects made during experimentation sessions and add them to a class mural of animals and plants. Then create individual final artwork.