# Rainforest in a Box
> Turn a big cardboard box into a rainforest with taped-on branches, a painted floor mat, paper-roll trees and a poster-board pond. Then kids fill it with toy animals and make up animal stories.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/small-world-play-rainforest-box/
- Ages: 3–7 yrs · Difficulty: medium · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 1 hr, activity 45 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group · one batch serves about 3 kids
- Skills: pretend-play, storytelling, animal-habitats, fine-motor
- Cautions: wheat-gluten

## Materials (one batch)
- 1 piece Large cardboard box (household)
- Small branches and twigs (household)
- Tape (household)
- 1 sheet White paper (large sheet) (household)
- Brown and green paint
- Paintbrushes (household)
- Kitchen paper towel rolls (household)
- Tissue paper (green and teal)
- Play dough
- 1 sheet Blue poster board
- Smooth rocks (household)
- White yarn (household)
- Toy rainforest animals (e.g. SAFARI TOOBs)
- Stuffed animals (e.g. monkey, snake) (optional) (household)
- 1 piece Basket or tray for play materials (optional) (household)
- 1 piece Scissors (household)

## Substitutions
- Instead of play dough: Gluten-free play dough or modeling clay (Anything heavy and squishy that holds the trees upright.)
- Instead of safari animals: Any small toy animals or stuffed animals you have on hand (We mixed in stuffed animals.)

## Safety
- Rocks, small branches and small toy animals are choking hazards for children under 3. Supervise play at all times.
- Check foraged branches for thorns, splinters, sharp ends and bugs before taping them in.
- Adult cuts the poster board.
- Keep the yarn 'monkey line' short and taut inside the box, and take it down after play. Loose string is a strangulation risk for young children.
- Use washable kids' paint for the floor mat.
- Most play dough contains wheat. Use a gluten-free dough if any child has a wheat allergy.

## Before you start
- Collect small branches on a nature walk.
- Paint a white sheet of paper brown and green for the forest-floor mat, and let it dry.
- Cut a pond shape from blue poster board.

## Steps
1. Tape small branches to the inside walls of the box.
2. Line the floor of the box with the painted brown-and-green paper mat.
3. Make paper roll trees: kitchen rolls with tissue paper leaves on top.
4. Press play dough around the bottom of each tree so it stays standing.
5. Lay the blue poster board water in the box and add a few rocks along the edges.
6. Adult: string white yarn across the box for the monkeys to hang from.
7. Set out a basket of twigs, rocks and toy animals next to the box.
8. Let the kids place the animals and build their own rainforest scene.
9. Play and make up animal stories inside the box.

## Tips
- For a 4 year old, just a lot of dense vegetation is enough. We kept it simple, fun and focused on storytelling with animals.
- Simple crafts are key. Paper roll trees are quick, and play dough at the base keeps them from tilting during play.
- Set out the materials and let the kids explore and make their own animal scene, like many small world play setups.
- If your child has a deep passion for creating animal habitats, this activity will keep them entertained for a long time.
- Hang on to the big box afterwards. We reused ours for throw ball painting, glow-in-the-dark fun and an art studio in a box.

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2015)

Create a fun rain forest in a box for a pretend play session and a fantastic learning opportunity. We still have the big box! In fact we made this rain forest even before our box [**throw ball painting**](https://www.funlittles.com/art-activity-throw-ball-painting/) and our glow in the dark box fun. Our most popular activity - [**art studio in a box**](https://www.funlittles.com/recycled-crafts-art-studio-in-a-box/) If working with an older child, you can easily make the 4 layers of a rain forest and make the activity realistic. For a 4 year old I think just a lot of dense vegetation is enough. Besides it was my 4 year old's idea to make a giant "rain forest in a box" and I'm pretty sure she did not have "learning the layers of rain forest" in her mind when she suggested this project! So we kept it simple, fun and primarily focused on storytelling with animals.

### What we did

With our stash of small branches from our nature walks my preschooler and I taped them to the insides of the box. I lined the floor of the box with a simple play mat made with a regular white paper painted with brown and green paint.  Next we set our paper roll trees. Those are kitchen rolls with tissue paper leaves. My 4 year enjoys making **[simple crafts -](https://www.funlittles.com/spring-crafts-fine-motor-activity-jellybean-bush-inspired-by-my-garden-by-kevin-henkes/)** simple being the key and we love our **[paper rolls crafts.](https://www.funlittles.com/tp-roll-craft-castle/)**. To make sure the trees don't tilt down during play time we put down **[play dough](https://www.funlittles.com/category/play-doh/)** and it held up the trees.



To create a water body I cut out a blue poster board and we added a few rocks along the edges. >As with many [**small world play**](https://www.funlittles.com/category/small-world/) setups, I set out the materials needed to play and the kids explored and enjoyed making an animal scene. You can also see a white yarn hanging for the monkeys..



It was pretty difficult to take pictures during playtime.



We used our SAFARI TOOBs and other stuffed animals we had on hand to make a fun rainforest scene



Here is our creation. This child of mine has a deep passion for creating animal habitats! If you have kid like that at home, this activity will keep them entertained for a long time. After creating the scene, playing and making up animal stories inside the box was the highlight. By the way Diego ( from the tv show) was mentioned during play time many times.

 Animal habitats sensory/small world we have shared [](https://www.funlittles.com/earth-day-activities-sandbox-savannah/) [](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-desert-sensory-bin/) [](https://www.funlittles.com/sensory-activities-pond-life-sensory-play/)

**Art studio in a box Active Art**

**[](https://www.funlittles.com/recycled-crafts-art-studio-in-a-box/)**

Thanks for reading!