Busy Kids: It’s a jungle out there!

In recent times, mother nature has not been too kind to our wild animals. Fires in Australia wiped out a devastating half-billion animals.

So with World Wildlife Day this week, we thought we’d take the opportunity to teach kids about precious types of wildlife in Australia and all over the world.

EXPLORE

• Symbio Wildlife park is the obvious nearby choice for getting your kids up close and personal to some wild animals.If you have the opportunity to head further afield, Taronga Zoo, Australia Zoo, Wild Life Sydney, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park and the Australian Reptile and Wildlife Sanctuary are all fabulous options within an hour or so from the Sutherland Shire.
• You can also head to the Royal National Park with some binoculars, set off on a bushwalk to try and spot wildlife on your own.
• Make sure you head to the Mums of the Shire – Autumn Affair event this week where (among HEAPS of other kids activities) there’ll be a wildlife-painted wall that kids can have their photos taken in.

MAKE

• A toilet-roll giraffe
• Easy lion masks or simply try some face painting!
• Adorable hedgehog biscuits
• Take a bowl of hummus and shape a heap of stick-shaped foods (think carrot, cucumber, capsicum slices, long pretzels) around them to look like a lion’s mane for a roaring afternoon tea.

PLAY

• Jungle Animal Charades – Act out animals and have your kids guess what you’re being, then it’s their turn.
• Forest animal online games for preschoolers.
• Have a look at the games you already own, there’s a good chance you’ve got jungle animals among them- perhaps Hungry Hippos or Monkey Flip?
• Can’t actually get to the zoo? Grab some stuffed animals and create your own zoo at home. Pretend you’re a zookeeper giving a tour-guide and tell your kids all about the animals- they’ll have just as much fun.

READ

• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
• The Very Brave Bear by Nick Bland
• The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright
• One Woolly Wombat by Kerry Argent
• Macca the Alpaca by Matt Cosgrove
• Follow that Tiger by Melanie Joyce
• Animals up close edited by Sophie Parkes
• My first book of animals by Dee Phillips

LISTEN

Spotify:

Jungle animal songs for kids by Mums of the Shire

Podcasts:

• A lion went for a walk (Storycasts)
• The Boy and the Rattlesnake (Storycasts)
• Curious about bears (Curious Kids Podcast)
• How do Bears Sleep all Winter (But Why)
• Why do Lions Roar? (But Why)
• Why do Elephants have trunks? (But Why)
• The Kratts take on Wild Animal Adventures (But Why)

WATCH

• The Wishmas Tree (Event Cinemas)
• The Big Trip (Event Cinemas)
• The Jungle Book (Disney +)
• Wild Kratts (Netflix)
• Madagascar (Netflix)
• The Lion King (Disney +)
• If I were an Animal (Netflix)

Thanks for following along this week. We ‘d love to see which activities you enjoyed so please tag @mumsoftheshire on Instagram and use #BusyKids so we can share them with our community.

Still looking for something to do? Here you’ll find our back catalogue of Busy Kids articles or try checking out some other things to do.