Find out all about the locations, climates, weather, plants, animals and human uses of a number of beautiful and diverse tropical jungle forests.

This Complete Series of six engaging lessons for KS1 children in Year 1 and Year 2 explore features of forest you and your class might not immediately picture when thinking about jungles: Indian seasonal tropical forests, mangrove swamps and mountain cloud forests are all explored with beautiful, detailed photos included in every slide show. There's a range of fun, challenging activities, too – as well as a range of ready-to-teach printable worksheets and other resources, there's a number of suggested art, role-play and drama activities your class are sure to love! Find out all about some of our most beautiful, fragile, important biomes as you take your Key Stage One class on a journey through some of the world's most fascinating jungles!

You may also like our Jungle Topic Bundle – select from ready-to-teach schemes across a range of subjects to create your own Jungle cross-curricular topic! 

What is a jungle?

What is a jungle? The answer is not as straightforward as you might think! Don't worry, as these lessons include detailed Teacher's Notes with background information to help you prepare for teaching these engaging KS1 Geography lessons.

To kick things off, identify the locations of some tropical and equatorial jungle forests around the world, then start to look at some of their shared features. Throughout the included teaching input and activities there are opportunities for children to use positional language and geographical vocabulary.

View Lesson 1

Central and Southern India

Explore the hot, dusty Indian seasonal tropical forest – the setting for Kipling's The Jungle Book – in this, the second in the Complete Series of six KS1 Geography lessons.

Children will discover why the jungle undergrowth is able to grow so thick and tangled, then find out about some of the plants and animals found in Indian forests neighbouring the savannah.

After that, it's up to you! There's a choice of engaging, differentiated activities where children can use geographical vocabulary and demonstrate what they've learned and understood so far.

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Mangroves

Lead an expedition through the dense, tangled roots of the mangrove trees as children learn all about these strange, tidal forests that exist above and below water.

There's beautiful images of plants and animals found in these unique biomes in the slides, along with a whole load of printable resources. In short, everything you need to teach your KS1 class about mangroves is included with this lesson – just print what you need for whichever of the two activities you choose to do!

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Cloud Forests

High in the mountains of Costa Rica, shrouded in mist, a very special type of jungle can be found: a cloud forest.

Starkly contrasting with other jungle forests studied in previous lessons in this Complete Series of six KS1 Geography lessons, children will be fascinated to learn about the strange conditions, plants and animals found in these cool, damp, dark, high-altitude forests.

As with all of the lessons in this Complete Series, there's a choice of activities, including the option to make cloud forest gardens with your class!

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British woodland vs jungle

Challenge children to compare two very different places: British woodland and tropical jungle forest. In this lesson, there's loads of opportunities for children to compare features of tropical forests to those found in managed forests such as those found in the Forest of Dean, UK.

Once children have had time to explore their initial ideas, choose to undertake either of the two included tasks, which include a woodland walk and a group sorting and comparing challenge.

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What have we learned?

Give children the chance to consolidate their learning and show you just how much they've remembered and understood about tropical jungle forests. The included slides show questions about prior learning for children to discuss and respond to. After that, there's a choice of activities where children can show their learning, PLUS an end of unit quiz – perfect for tracking your KS1 class's Geography learning!

View Lesson 6