The jungle is a place of intrigue for young children. Providing them with a collection of small-world jungle animals and creating imaginary play scenarios where they can role play what it feels like to trek through the jungle or to be an animal themselves will help them with their understanding of the world around them.
Children may want to dress up as a tiger and pounce on their prey, which will help them act out their fear of wild animals, or they may prefer to create homes for the small-world animals, feeding them and sorting them into families. Either way, 'jungle play' creates opportunities for practitioners to talk to children about animal habitats and to encourage them to explore animals in fiction and non-fiction books.
CORE COLLECTION
A collection of jungle animals should be a feature of your continuous (everyday) provision. This should include a selection of wild animals — for example, crocodiles, alligators, tigers, lions, chimpanzees, gorillas, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, giraffes, elephants, leopards and cheetahs.
Jane Blant, nursery nurse at Alfreton Nursery School in Derbyshire, says that children love to communicate with the jungle animals by caring for them and playing families with them. She says, 'We have a large natural construction area that contains lots of wooden bricks and natural materials, including cones, shells, leaves and stones. Surrounding it are baskets of different animals, small-world play people and minibeasts.
'The children love to build houses for the jungle animals. They once created a shelter for the lions and talked about what they liked to eat and who was in their family. They used some artificial grass for the lions, the lionesses and the cubs to lie on because one child remarked that the lions like to lie down in the sun.
'Also, during our forest school sessions we sometimes take soft animal puppets out with us and the children build homes for them and share snacks with them. This helps children to play out their understanding of nurture, care and relationships. As practitioners engage in conversations with children, they can also introduce a range of vocabulary based around the jungle theme.'
When deciding what resources to include in your collection, Jo Vickers, manager at Weavers Fields Community Nursery in Tower Hamlets, east London, advises using jungle animals that look as realistic as possible. She says, 'Storage is also key. Wild jungle animals should be separate from the domestic animals and animals from different manufacturers should be stored in different boxes. This is to avoid confusion over the size of animals - for example, some lions looking bigger than an elephant.'
Here are some points to consider when building up a core collection:
- Provide a large selection of realistic representations of jungle animals, both adult and baby animals, so that children can share, match mothers with babies or groups of the same animals, line them up or put them in herds. Try the Schleich African Mums and Babies Set of 14 pieces (£49.99) or the Schleich Jungle Animal Set of six pieces (£24.99) both from www.earlyyears.co.uk. Or the pack of eight Figurines Jungle Animals (£33) from www.wesco-eshop.co.uk. The Classic Jungle Collection (£31.95) from www.tts-group.co.uk, includes 18 animals and their young.
- It is important to have lots of the same animals so that children can use them for grouping, sorting and comparison, helping them to learn mathematical skills during their play. Try the Wild Animal set of 17 pieces (£25) from www.elc.co.uk; the set of 60 Jungle Animal Counters (£18.95) from www.learningresources.co.uk, which includes five of each of the 12 different species, or the Safari Wild Animal Toob of 12 animals (£10.99) from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk.
- Younger children will enjoy playing with Playmobil's range of jungle playscenes. Playmobil 4830 Lion Pride with Monkeys (£12.31), Playmobil 4853 Meerkat Family (£9.87), and Playmobil 4827 Wildlife Waterhole (£46.50), which includes 12 animals with an observation platform and a crocodile cave, can be bought from www.amazon.co.uk. Older children may prefer the ready-made small world Jungle Safari (£31) complete with 24 animal figures, a wood tunnel and coloured leaves, from www.yellow-door.net. Or the Jungle Set (£189.99) from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk, which includes a safari play mat, a jungle hospital and 35 animals.
- Ensure that some of the resources can be used indoors and out. Children will enjoy playing with the animals in sand and water, on the grass or in muddy areas. A new range of green rubber toys from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk, also called the Jungle Set (£19.99), includes a giraffe, elephant and orang-utan, perfect for small hands and robust and waterproof.
- Provide a range of natural materials so that children can create their own small-world jungles in Tuff trays, in the sandpit, in the construction area, inside or outside. Let the children add leaves, compost, pebbles, rocks, real grass, sticks and leaves to make the scene look realistic. Try setting up a small-world area with a range of resources from Cosy Direct on 01332 370152. For a realistic jungle floor, use the Artificial Grass (£9.25 per metre), with the Live Moss (£8.95 for a 1.5-litre bag). Add foliage like the Ivy Garland (£3.95 for 1.5m), attach leaves into the Decor Netting (£4.99) or the Dry Foam Bricks (£1.75 for two blocks). Create a messy jungle landscape with the Rainbow Swamp Gel (£10.99 for five sachets). Drape the set of four long Snakes (£4.99) from your jungle foliage and let the set of five Jumbo Jungle Animals (£21.95) live there. Alternatively, provide children with a Small World Jungle kit (£9.99), which contains a set of open-ended resources that can be used to create a jungle or other scenarios.
- Store your animals containers, such as the range of Zulu storage bags from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk.
IMAGINATIVE PLAY
If jungle role play captures the children's imagination, practitioners can extend the learning into different areas and introduce lots of new vocabulary.
Children at Alfreton Nursery School enjoyed trekking through the jungle and stopping off at the campsite for a good night's rest when teachers transformed their imaginary play area into a jungle.
Ms Blant says, 'To create a jungle environment we hung large camouflage nets from the ceilings and added big plastic jungle plants, leaves and different types of animal print materials. We made a cave with a pop-up tent where lions and tigers could hide away. The children sponge painted the windows and created a fire pit out of natural materials. They loved to fill up the rucksacks with exploring equipment — binoculars, magnifying glasses, compasses and torches - and go off on a trek through the jungle. We also put in lots of animals and soft toys, photographs and books and shared lots of new words with them.
They were not confined to this indoor space. In fact, they often went outside and searched for minibeasts with their rucksacks on. We also extended this to outdoors by decorating the walk-through willow tunnel with leaves and fabrics to make it look like a jungle walk. The children made jungle masks and dressed up as animals in drapes and voiles.'
Here are some ideas for resources to use in your jungle play area:
- Use fabrics on the floor, the table or the walls. Try the Animal Print Fur Fabric (£22.95) from www.tts-group.co.uk or the Animal Series Crepe Paper (£6.50 for five rolls) from www.wesco-eshop.co.uk.
- Create a section for music making in the jungle. Use some animal print fabric like the Elephant and Camel Fabric (£21.99) from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk, and add instruments like the Frog Guiros (£7.99) and the Painted Djembe (£29.99) both from Cosy Direct, the Bamboo Buzzers (£7.99) from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk or the Early Years Multicultural Set (£199.95) from www.tts-group.co.uk. The Animal Boogie Storysack (£94.99) from www.earlyyears.co.uk includes hand masks of Indian jungle animals, a CD and DVD of dance moves.
- Include resources for children who might want to dress up as animals or become explorers. Try the Role Play Animal Wraps (£39.95) or the Furry Gilets (£29.95), both from www.tts-group, the range of monkey, zebra, crocodile and lion tabards (£16.99 each) from www.earlyyears.co.uk and the Tiger Cape Costume (£18.30) from www.wesco-eshop.co.uk. Also, provide plenty of arts and craft materials and animal print paper and fabrics for them to make their own animal masks. For explorers, provide binoculars, a compass, a whistle and a safari hat, like the ones contained in the Explorer's Set (£8.50) from www.tts-group.co.uk.
- Set up dens or hideaways outdoors using the Den Frame (£24.99) with the Green Camouflage Material (£24.99) and the Giant Pegs (£12.99) all from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk. Or try the Forest Hideaway Den (£63.95) or the sturdy timber Explorers' House (£3,499,95), both from www.tts-group.co.uk.
- Outdoors, create a walk-through jungle using the Walkthrough Tunnel (£94.99) a lengthy metal frame that can be decorated with bamboo rolls, a Hide-Away Net (£18.70) or Camouflage Netting (£8.99 per metre). Alternatively, create a jungle hideout or cave with the Arch Frame (£89.95) or the Talking Den (£269.95) a willow with holes for pipes. All from Cosy Direct.
- Set up a camp, indoors or out, with some sticks or natural materials for the campfire. Include a Mini Hammock (£6.66) from Cosy Direct, for children or teddies.
BOOK CORNER
Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae
Walking Through The Jungle by Debbie Harter
We All Went On Safari: A counting journey through Tanzania by Laurie Krebs
Say Hello To The Jungle Animals by Ian Whybrow Rumble in the Jungle story set (£44.95) from www.hope-education.co.uk contains a book and 10 finger puppets
The Animal Boogie by Barefoot Books comes with a CD
MORE INFORMATION
Playing and Learning Outdoors: Making provision for high-quality experiences in the outdoor environment by Jan White. From Essential Guides for Early Years Practitioners series, Routledge in conjunction with Nursery World