Teacher Guide for an "Inquiry Leading to Understanding" Project

Rain Forests

By Gary Powell
Meet the Author

"What would happen to Earth if all of the rain forests were cut down?"
 Overview


 Understandings
and Standards


 Activities


 Resources


 Student Guide



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Activities

Activity 1: KWL chart
By reading the story "Fernado's Gift" in the text book, students will be introduced to the rain forest and what it is. Then we will do a KWL chart to see what the children know about rain forests. That will spark some interest and intrigue the students to wa...

Activity 2: What is a rain forest?
Students will be able to read a variety of books that will give them information and a better understanding about what rain forests actaully are. The teacher will provide a mass amount of books for children to explore and write down facts that they will discov...

Activity 3: Mapping the rain forests
Students will fill in locations on a global map that contain rain forests. The teacher will show a world map that is color coded to show where the rain forests are. Then the students will create their own maps by coloring the rain forests on a paper map.

Activity 4: Reports on the rain forest
Students will be put into groups to do research on different areas of the rain forest. The groups will be defining a rain forest, where it is, people, animals, plants, and the layers of the rain forest. Once they are in the groups, they will read and find out...

Activity 5: Rain Forest percipiataion
Students will see whether there is more rain where they live or in the rain forest. They will need to do research to see how much rain falls in the two locations. (The teacher will have to have the information available either online or by books.) Once they f...

Activity 6: Creating a rain forest
Students will create two terrariums in the classroom for observation. One will have soil in it, representing land that doesn't have a lot of plants and trees. The other one will have soil and plants, representing land with trees and plants. Over time the te...

Activity 7: Creating a rain forest bulletin board
After listing and explaining the layers of the rain forest, students will work together to create their own artistic version of the rain forest on a wall. Students will use what they learned and books to create the rain forest on the bulliten board. They will...

Activity 8: A walk through the rain forest
The final lesson will be finishing the KWL chart and discussing what they have learned about the rain forest. The students are going to synthesize the information and write a story about their imaginary walk through a rain forest. They can be a native person,...

Activity 9: Magic School Bus Video
The unit will be ended with the Magic School Bus video on rain forests. The students will enjoy a video recapping things that they have learned about the rain forest.