Grade Level:  2

Objectives:  The students will be able to describe what constitutes a rainforest habitat and the types of plants and animals found there.

Materials:  The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, assorted art supplies (tissue, construction paper, tag board, tempera paint, pipe cleaners, etc), glue, scissors and butcher paper for mural.  

*This book can be found in local libraries or in school library. It can also be purchased online.

Procedure:  
Review definition of habitat.  
Point out the three habitats we will be focusing on:  rainforests, deserts and coral reefs.  
Tell them we are going to read about rainforest habitats today.  Refer to poster and show the students all the different types of living things found in the rainforest. 
Introduce The Great Kapok Tree. 
Read Story.   
Stop occasionally to discuss material read with the students.  Discuss what constitutes a rainforest 
*Rainforests occur near and around the equator
*The rainfall is between 160 and 400 inches per year 
*There is no winter, days and nights are equal in length
*There is an average daily temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit 
Ask students to give examples of some animal, plant and people populations found in forests.  
Students describe climate and environment of a rainforest. 

Activity:  The students will be shown a variety of animal pictures to illustrate the variety of animals found in a forest. They will be given a variety of art supplies such as pipe cleaners, construction paper, tissue scraps, tempera paint, etc.  In cooperative groups they will each be asked to make animals and vegetation found in forests.  Together, all of these projects will be used to make a class “forest mural.” 

Evaluation:  Students will be evaluated based on the animal and vegetation rainforest mural produced using the Habitat Checklist.

Extension Activity: Read then Write an Amazon Folk Tale

• Visit Ecuador Explorer 

• Read to the students, How to Build A Canoe

• Ask the students what happened when the men became afraid and jumped away (the god then got angry and did not help them to build canoes anymore)

• Have the students draw a canoe; write a short description

• Ask students to write a similar folk tale representing the rainforest

• After first draft, type text in desktop publishing and add clip art or graphics from Internet

• Proof read

• Publish

Homework: In class, take a survey of most popular rainforest animals. Give students the data for home use. Ask them to create a pie or bar graph representing the data. Visit Kids Graphing, Select a type of graph, click Go, learn about it, and then create one. 

Field Trip: Take a virtual fieldtrip to Rainforest. Share four facts learned: kinds of animals, kinds of plants, kinds of people living there, and favorite layer. If school is in a subtropical area, such as South Florida, take students on a fieldtrip to a local park to view subtropical plants, many are the same as those found in the rainforest such as strangler fig, heliconia, orchids and bromeliads.