The Jungle Files: an online reading challenge

The Jungle Files is our free-to-use, web-based reading challenge for 8-11 year olds. Unlike our Jungle Explorer workshop, which is fast-paced, explorer-led and crammed into a single day, the Jungle Files reading challenge is a self-led resource that can be used to more slowly enhance your rainforest topic, if necessary over the space of a full term. The challenge can be taken by your pupils either at home or during their usual reading time in class. All that is required to take part in the challenge is access to the internet.

The Jungle Files reading challenge includes more than 140 fact files and over 600 high-resolution photographs, covering all aspects of the tropical rainforest environment. The content of each file is usually fun, educational, inspiring, gruesome or fascinating, and sometimes even all of these things at the same time.

The fact files themselves are divided into different levels, and pupils work their way through each level and answer questions on what they have just read, before progressing on to the next level. Pupils can advance through as many levels as they wish, at whatever speed they find most comfortable. There is no need to progress all the way to the end of the last level, but the more a pupil reads, the more they will learn about the rainforest.

Each level contains approximately thirty fact files, with each of these files taking three minutes or less to read. Should pupils successfully navigate all the way to the end of the last level, they will have read a staggering 30,000 words and been engaged in around five or six hours worth of topic-focused reading time. By that stage, they will also know more about the tropical rainforests than 99% of the UK population.

The Jungle Files reading challenge is free to all UK Primary schools, irrespective of whether you choose to book a workshop with us. For further information on the challenge, simply email us at info@JungleExplorerWorkshop.com, using your usual school email address, and we will then send you details for the Jungle Files website, along with everything else that you need to get started.