Preparing for your Education Session:
Rainforest Explorer
Location: Rainforest Life
Duration: 45 minutes
Curriculum links
KS2 Science
Year 4 programme of study (2014) - Living things and their habitats
Pupils should be taught to:

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in
their local and wider environment

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things
Session content
This session gives a general introduction to the climate and
animals of the tropical rainforests of South America.
During the session children
will:
Explore the rainforest biome
Sit, listen and answer questions
 Take part in an activity to label
rainforest animals with their
adaptations.
 Meet a live animal where possible.


We start by exploring the zoo’s rainforest biome, looking for
animals and taking temperature and humidity readings. We
then go back to our classroom to describe the habitat type
and look at the adaptations of the animals that live there.
Using the Zoo to support this session
The worksheet on the reverse of this page encourages pupils to look closely at the animals in the Zoo
Other activities you might like to do in the Zoo:
 Visit Rainforest Life. Ask the children to draw their favourite animal and label its body to show what
it uses to help it move, collect and eat food and avoid being eaten by another animal.
 Whilst in the Rainforest biome, look at the plants and discuss the layers in the forest from the forest
floor to the canopy. Draw a picture of the forest and label it. Take photos to look at later.
 As you walk around the zoo, try to create a list of animals that come from rainforest. Places to visit
include Butterfly Paradise, Parrots, B.U.G.S!, Meet the Monkeys and the Blackburn Pavilion tropical
bird house.
Suggested classroom activity (for before or after your visit)
Use atlases to locate three places on Earth where you find rainforests.
Create a rainforest collage showing the variety of animals that live there.
2015/16
www.zsl.org/education
Zoo Challenge
Years 3 and 4
Into Africa
Some animals have patterns which help them to camouflage. Find the Okapi and draw on its
the picture below:
pattern on
Find another animal with patterns for camouflage
and draw it below.
Okapi
This animal is a
Where does the Okapi come from?
It comes from
Komodo dragons
Reptile House.
Komodo dragons are carnivores and predators that
hunt their prey.
Snakes swallow their prey whole. Some snakes
use venom to poison their prey, some are called
constrictors and squeeze their prey to death.
What part of its body does the Komodo use to kill its
prey?
(circle your answer/s below)
Tail
Teeth and mouth
Back
Draw a snake below and find out whether it is
venomous or a constrictor.
Eyes
Claws
Name 2 animals that the Komodo dragon likes to eat
in the wild…
1)
2)
?
Did you know
dragons can be
Baby komodo
grown ups!
e
th
eaten by
re
the trees whe
They stay up in
d safe!
an
d—
ge
fla
they are camou
2015/2016
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ou k
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e
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They
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www.zsl.org/education
Zoo Challenge
Years 5 and 6
Rainforest Life
Find an animal that lives in the trees.
Sketch it below:
Did y
ou kn
ow?
All an
imals
are re
their
all
them habitat. T y well ada
heir f
pted
to su
e
rvive
by he atures help to
lping
them
to:
move
a
r
o
u
find f
n
d
ood a
nd w
ater
Write down two features of your animal
(e.g. Long tail)
1.
2.
How do these features help it to survive in the
rainforest?
This animal is a
Gorilla Kingdom
Watch the gorillas. What can you see them doing?
Write two things that ZSL is doing to protect these
gorillas in the wild:
1.
The gorillas at London Zoo are Western Lowland
gorillas. This type of gorilla is critically endangered
due to hunting and the destruction of its rainforest
habitat.
?
u know
Did yo
isk of s
re at r
n
imals a ause huma
n
a
y
n
c
e
b
Ma
.
t
s
c
t
ita
tin
ing ex
eir hab
becom stroying th
e
d
are
2.
B.U.G.S.
Find an endangered animal in
B.U.G.S. Draw it here
Is your animal classified as:
VULNERABLE
ENDANGERED
CRITICALLY ENDANGRED
EXTINCT IN THE WILD
(Circle one)
Why is this species threatened?
Name of animal:
Habitat:
2015/2016
www.zsl.org/education