Jungle Explorers
6-8’s, 9-12’s
1. Story: "Sir Reginald’s Logbook"
2. Activity 1: Jungle Sounds
Materials:
• Long feather
• Blindfold
• Animal pictures
Instructions:
1. Give each child an animal card (make sure they are all mixed up).
2. Explain to the children the sound that each animal makes, and give them all a chance to practice the sounds.
3. Each child keeps their animal secret from the others.
4. Children sit in one large circle.
5. One child is chosen to be “it” and he/she sits in the middle of the circle blindfolded and with a feather in hand.
6. As the leader calls out the name of an animal, every child with that card makes the animal sound.
7. The person in the middle has to listen very carefully to try to locate one of these animals by following the sound.
8. Once he/she finds the animal (or thinks he/she has found it), he/she reaches out with the feather and touches the animal.
9. If the correct animal has been found, the two children change places and there is a new blindfolded person in the middle.
10. If not, the original child stays in the middle and tries to guess again as different animal sounds are made (as called out by the leader).
3. Activity 2: Obstacle Course
The object of this activity is for a child, assisted by other children, to get safely through an obstacle course. Feel free to create a dramatic reason why the children have to make their way to safety. A downed plane for instance!
If you have a great number of participants, divide them into groups and, if space permits, have more than one obstacle course set up. You can also have the children take turns calling out directions.
Using props create an obstacle course in the room. If your library is short on props, you can make your own out of paper or cardboard.
Design your obstacle course including such things as:
spiders, snakes (using puppets perhaps)
crocodiles (these can be pillows)
quicksand (a brown blanket)
water (perhaps inhabited by piranhas) or swamps, let your imagination run wild!
Ask for a volunteer who bravely navigates the obstacle course blindfolded. The other children assist the volunteer by calling out directions.
The ‘assistants’ can be placed a different points on the course so instead of saying, “turn right or left” (which might be confusing) the assistant can call out ‘over here’.
If desired you can rearrange the obstacles and repeat the game choosing a different child to navigate the course.
All the children are winners in this game since they work together to get their companion safely through the dangerous path!
4. Activity 3 (9-12’s): Can You Eat/Drink it?
Instructions:
1. One essential survival skill is to be able to identify what is safe to drink and eat and what is not.
2. Fill plastic bottles with a very small amount of various liquids: water, cola, juices, shampoo, mouthwash, coffee, etc.
3. Line them up on a table with numbers on them.
4. Have the children line up with a numbered sheet of paper and take turns looking and smelling the liquids. (Make sure they do not taste any of the liquids.)
5. Have them put a √ beside the numbers they think can be drunk and an X beside the ones that cannot.
You can also have various “food” lined up. For example, mint leaves, fern leaves, coffee beans, etc.
5. Activity 4: I am going on a Jungle Safari (Repeat and add game)
Instructions:
1. Have all of the kids sit in a circle.
2. Pick one child to start…”I am going on a Jungle Safari and I am going to bring…”
3. As you go around the circle, each child tries to repeat everything that has been said before, and add one item of their own to bring on the Jungle Safari.
6. Crafts: Explorer’s Logbook
Materials:
1. One piece of construction paper per child
2. Four or five pieces of blank paper per child
3. Stapler
4. Markers and decorations
Instructions:
1. Fold the piece of construction paper
2. Fold the blank pages
3. Place the folded construction paper around the folded blank pages and staple them together on the one side to create a book
4. Decorate
Collection Box
