Give each child a shoebox, paper towel rolls, tissue paper, construction paper, paints, crayons and small items such as string, beads and buttons. Have them recreate a rain forest by painting the bottom of the box brown. Then crumple up green tissue paper for bushes and paint the paper towel rolls brown for tall trees, decorating the tops with cut up tissue paper or construction paper. They can finish their rain forests by gluing string to resemble vines and adding beads and buttons for insects. Cutouts of rain forest animals and birds that they color in will complete the diorama.
Empty toilet paper rolls can be used to create a variety of animals. For a sloth, cut a foot shape out of construction paper, color it brown and add a face. Color in rectangle shapes of paper for legs and glue them to the toilet paper roll to resemble a sloth hanging from a branch. For a snake, glue string to a few toilet paper rolls to tie them together, then have the children paint them and add eyes and a face. Glue a small, thin piece of pink paper or string to the front to resemble a tongue.
Create bright rain forest butterflies using tissue paper or coffee filters. For the body, the children can color or paint a wooden clothes peg and then use it to bunch up the paper in the middle so it looks like wings. Have the children use markers, food coloring or water colors to add splotches of color to the paper. The colors will spread out and fill in the paper. Open the clothes peg and add a pipe cleaner folded in half to look like antennae.
Show the children pictures of rain forest birds such as parrots, macaws and toucans. The children can then trace one foot for the bird's body and one hand for the wings onto paper. Cut them out, and then create several cutouts of the hand from different colors of paper. Have the children glue several hand prints to the body to create a cascade of colorful feathers, or use one color of construction paper and offer the children crayons, paints and feathers to create a vibrant rain forest bird.