Little Hands Learning | Rainforest Box

 “A monthly box, inspired by the magic of books.”

Yes, it's Little Hands Learning time again. Our June box has already arrived and it’s safe to say we've already got stuck into that – but tonight's post is all about May’s Box, which had a rainforest theme inspired by the book: The Lost Leopard.

Written by Johnny Marx and illustrated by Xuan Lee, we joined intrepid explorers Flora and Fauna (oh, and Baby Bud) as they went in search of the elusive clouded leopard. Everything about this book was just beautiful – in particular, the illustrations were so vivid and detailed. With flaps and paper effects, each page was more engaging than the last. We also loved all the facts, too.

The activities in this box were:

• Design and make your own rainforest diorama
• Make a rainforest picture
• Craft your own leopard footprints
• Make your own leopard

A leopard never changes its spots

The first craft we did together was making our leopards. I cut the brown and black tissue paper into strips and we both scrunched the strips up into balls to fill our leopard silhouettes. Alfie didn't scrunch his as much as I did, so my leopard ended up looking quite sparse and I had to add more black spots than I actually wanted to. We used the leopards in the book as inspiration and enjoyed covering the card silhouettes in glue (which is always provided). Once complete, they looked great, and we set them aside for the small world at the end.

Follow the footprints

We've had a few salt dough activities from Little Hand Learning, but they're always fantastic – mainly because Alfie can do them by himself now. There was a time he didn’t like touching the mixture. But I lay everything out for this, and he got stuck right in! I told him it was a bit like making cookies – so he mixed the dry salt dough mix with water and formed a ball. He then pulled off sections of the dough and flattened them in his palm, before putting them on a baking tray.

We then got the leopard figurine, and he created footprints in the dough, and decided that we weren’t only going to have a leopard, but a badger too! The badger was from the Tree Box (which was April’s box) and ended up being part of the diorama when it came to playing. Once all the footprints had been created, I put the dough in the airing cupboard, and it took less than 48 hours to dry – I turned the discs halfway.

It's a small world

We painted our backdrop and left it to dry – creating a waterfall and some trees, which I then ripped up and stuck onto the box lid. We then added the green shredded paper and gorgeous blue rice, sticking some of it down to the bottom of the box. I arranged our salt dough leopard footprints from earlier, alongside our DIY leopards, and the toy figurine. Alfie could then dip in and out of the small world box as he pleased.

He enjoyed playing hide and seek, trying to hide the leopard amongst the ‘grass’ and even turned the footprints over to create ‘rocks’. I then decided to create some vines using the green tissue the box came in. The leopard climbed the vines and of course, as I mentioned, the badger joined in too. We’ve come back to this activity several times and there’s always something new we can play or discover, which is great – and there’s no pressure to play.

The rainforest boxes are still available online as a one-off box. Spoiler alert – you can also order June’s Box which has the beautiful theme ‘Amazing Me’. It’s a fantastic box about love and self-appreciation – and we've almost completed all the activities. I think that post will come around fast!

As always, if you'd like to order a one-off box for yourself or a gift, or even sign up to a subscription, use code: LUCYLOCKET for a discount, and add in the notes that I recommended you.

And remember to follow Little Hands Learning on Instagram for sneak peeks of future boxes, plus lots of educational ideas, fun crafts, and experiments.

Love, Lucy xx