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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
A TRIP TO THE RAIN FOREST
(QuickPlan developed by Carla Beltramini, Trieste , Italy)
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OVERVIEW: In this lesson, children learn about the different layers of the rain forest and some of the animals and plants that live in each level. It is intended as the beginning of more extensive unit on rain forests.
BOOKLINK: The Great Kapok Tree by Lynn Cherry, Gulliver, 1990. ISBN 0-590-98068-8
SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: In this opening activity on the rain forest the children will build a model kapok tree and some of the smaller trees that make up the rain forest. As the unit develops and the children learn about the plants and animals that live in the different layers, these can all be added to the trees, vines and plants in the different layers.
OBJECTIVE: To guide students through the experience of visiting a rain forest without the bugs, poisonous snakes, and steamy weather...and of course, to identify the characteristics of rain forests and their role in global ecology.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-observing, prediciting, inferring, measuring, constructing models, gathering data and displaying data. Content-identification of the characteristics of a rain forest and the organisms that live in it.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (3) Life Science, (6) Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
MATERIALS: Book The Great Kapok Tree, brown and green tissue and crepe paper, brown paper bags, green yarn,or just use very thin strips of green crepe paper, newspaper,masking tape, scissors, stapler
PROCEDURE:
1. Begin by reading and discussing the book The Great Kapok Tree. Ask the children if they'd like to help you to build a rainforest in their classroom and hope they say yes or you're going to have a huge job on your hands!
2. Arrange the children in groups around tables. Place the paper and bags and masking tape in the middle of each table. Now give each group a wall space so that they can build their trees on the classroom walls. Tell the class that the first tree they will build will be an emergent tree-the tallest of the cluster they build.
3. Make paper bag trees: cut long, wide strips out of brown paper bags. Then staple two or three of the strips together along both long sides and stuff these paper bag tubes with crumpled newspaper. The tree trunks can be attached to the floor and stacked up and taped all the way to the ceiling. These are the emergent trees. Use twisted strips of crepe or tissue paper for branches that can also be taped to the walls.
4. Next, make tissue paper and crepe paper trees. These are easily made by taking lengths of brown tissue or crepe paper and twisting the lengths to look like the trunks of trees.These are easily taped to walls, windows, pipes, even a corner of your room. Add branches by twisting thinner strips of crepe or tissue paper and adding them to the tops of the trees. This second tree will be a tree belonging to the canopy layer and it will be the second highest tree.
5. The third tree (or trees) that each group makes will be a tree from the understory and they will need to be a bit shorter than the canopy layer. The trees can be placed one right next to the other. This will make it look even more like a crowded rain forest.
6. To finish off the rain forest, cut thin strips of crepe paper (2-3cms) and then twist and pull them to make lianna vines. These can be wrapped around the trunks but best of all you can attach them to the branches and tape them here and there across the ceiling (I'd suggest you, the teacher, do this last part).
7. Cut up lots of leaves from green crepe, tissue, or craft paper. Look in books (see below for which ones) for some ideas on different shapes and sizes to make them. The leaves can be attached to vines and branches, hung from the ceiling, and littered around the base of tree trunks. Moss can be made from lengths of green yarn or thin strips of green crepe paper strewn over the vines and branches.
8. The rain forest can grow and change with the student's knowledge by adding the rain forest animals to the branches and vines in the different layers of the rain forest. Rain forest animal pictures can be drawn, colored, and constructed form construction or other appropriate paper. Children should be encouraged to identify the animals they construct and describe their roles in the rain forest, e.g. where they live, what they eat, and who eats them.
9. The book Rain Forest by Robin Bernard (Scholastic) was a fountain of information and contained most of the reproducibles that we used including the parrots and snakes we used later on in the unit.
SAFETY: Encourage children to be careful as they cut, tape, staple, and interact.
RELATED BOOKS:
Rain Forest by Robin Bernard. Scholastic, 1996. ISBN 0-590-59919-4
At Home in the Rain Forest by Diane Willow, Charlesbridge, 1991. ISBN 088106484X
Rain Forest Homes by Akletha Pittaway, Oxford, 1980. ISBN 0521302951
Rain Forest Animals by Michael Chinnery, Random House, 1992.
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