MOTIVATION:
    1.  Brainstorm on a KWL chart what the students Know about rain forests.
    2.  Ask students what they Want to learn about rain forests (leave L blank for now).
    3.  Show students pictures of the rain forest.  What do you see there?  Have children describe the rain forest in various ways- physical, animal life, plant life, etc.

PROCEDURE:
    1.  After looking at the pictures, have children describe the rain forest.  Hand them a data sheet that they will fill-in using the information they will gather from the website: http://mbgnet.mobot.org/sets/rforest/index.htm. (All images in the table below were taken from this site)
 

CHARACTERISTIC	ILLUSTRATION	DESCRIPTION
CLIMATE and SOIL		The rain forest averages between 80 and 400 inches of rain a year. The average temperature does not change more than 15 degrees a year- from between 75 and 90 degrees.  The average humidity is 77- to 88 percent. The soil is poor in nutrients, and the topsoil is only an inch or two deep, because the rain keeps washing it away.
LOCATIONS		Most rain forests are clustered around the equator- between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.  There are rain forest in Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
ANIMAL LIFE		This tiger is one of the inhabitants of the Indonesian rain forest.  It is endangered.  The rain forests of the world are home to more animals than any other biome on earth.  Over 10,000 kinds of ants can be found there.
PLANT LIFE		The rain forest is home to more varieties of plants than any other biome on earth.  This is a rafflesia flower.  It is the largest and smelliest flower in the world.  It's smell attracts the insects, which then fall inside and can't get out!

    2.  Elicit a list of vocabulary words related to the rain forest- soil, flora, fauna, average yearly temperature, average yearly rainfall, tropics, humidity, and nutrients.  Have children write their meanings on a database.  They can find the vocabulary words from http://m-w.com

soil
flora
fauna
average yearly temperature
average yearly rainfall
tropics
humidity
nutrients

    3.  Have children describe the rain forest in their own words now that they have had some experiences.  Ask questions like:
        a.  How is the rain forest different than other biomes?
        b.  How is the rain forest different than where we live?
        c.  What seems to be the most interesting part about the rain forest?

ACTIVITIES:
    1.  Make a rainforest terrarium.  Use an old aquarium (or a 2-liter soda bottle), small pebbles or rocks, bits of charcoal (from a pet store for aquariums), soil, plants, rocks, pieces of wood.  Layer the bottom with small pebbles, then charcoal, and twice as much soil.  Sprinkle with just enough water to make moist.  Place several plants like mosses, ferns, lichens, and small seedlings.  Put in several large rocks and decaying wood.  You can even put in small land animals like snails, earthworms, turtles, frogs or salamanders.  Put a loose fitting sheet of glass over the top of the terrarium (to permit humidity level to build up).  Make sure that some air can enter and that is kept out of direct sunlight.  The children will be able to observe that the terrarium becomes a self-sufficient environment, with the plants providing some nourishment for the animals and vice versa.  Have them compare the similarities to the rain forest!
    2.  Make a chart comparing the amount of rainfall that the rain forest receives to what our area receives yearly.

FOLLOW-UP:  This lesson will lead into the next lesson- "What are the Layers of the Rain Forest?