Rainforests of the World (Grades K - 3)
Bring the rainforest to life in your classroom! Explore soil, animal adaptations, and plant-animal interactions.
Lead your students on an exploration of tropical rainforests around the world visiting Borneo, Madagascar, Costa Rica, and the Amazon!. These hands-on activities explore topics including rainforest layers, animal adaptations, rainforests soils, and plant-animal interactions.
You can use this kit to prepare your students for a field trip to the Academy's Rainforest Exhibit. Or, if you can't make it to the Academy, use the kit on its own to bring the rainforest to you! This version of the rainforest kit is for grades K - 3.
Materials
- curriculum binder
- jungle layers hanging poster and tripod
- camouflage backgrounds and animal transparencies
- whole walnuts, plastic insects, plastic fruit, and water vial
- tongs, tweezers, nutcrackers, and straws
- 24 plastic bowls
- 1 timer
- soil sampler
- 2 examples of soil cores
- 8 apple corers
- blue morpho butterfly specimen
- 2 dung beetle puppets and faux dung ball
- 1 blue morpho butterfly puppet
- butterfly and dung beetle stages of metamorphosis cards and photos
- inflatable globe
- Books: "The Living Rainforest: An Animal Alphabet" by Paul Kratter; "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynne Cherry; "Rainforest Revealed" by Jen Green; "Fernando's Gift" by Douglas Keister; "Journey of the Red-Eyed Tree Frog" by Martin and Tanis Jordan; "The Most Beautiful Roof in the World" by Kathryn Lasky
- DVD: "World's Last Great Places: Rain Forest"
Activities
Tropical Belt: Identify the locations of tropical rainforests on a world map and make a fashionable belt to help you remember where they are found.
Beetles and Butterflies, What a Surprise!: Learn the life cycles of beetles and butterflies and hear a story about a very special beetle named Douglass.
Jungle Layers: Learn the plants and animals that inhabit different layers of the rainforest with a beautiful hanging poster and an entertaining "Jungle Layers" song.
Superb Soil Science: Learn that soils in different locations have different layers and colors, learn how scientists take a soil sample, and take your own mini-samples from layered brownies and blondies!
Camouflage - On the Look Out!: Learn the importance of camouflage for survival in the rainforest environment, choose the best environments for different organisms to hide in, and create your own hidden pictures of camouflaged animals.
A Bill Full!: Experiment with different tools as you learn how the shapes of birds bills are adapted for the foods they eat.
