Teaching the rainforest is one of my favorites. I particularly
like it because it's a great opportunity for my kids to independently research
an animal.
I'll have to explain the research "how to" in another post, but
basically up until now we have done our research whole group. As we study the 4
layers of the rainforest, we set to work creating one on our hallway wall.
We begin by creating safari people and field journals. My grade
partner and I found these safari people here. The kids love creating their
faces with the construction paper.
The remainder of the rainforest is up to the children to create.
We discuss layers, vegetation, and animals.
My favorite activity is when they choose an animal to research,
draw, and then paint. To help them with spelling for their first animal, I have
them choose one of the animal cards that we have been sorting into the
different layers all last week.
Using their IPads and kidrex.org now kiddle.org. We have already discussed choosing
sites that use a picture icon that fits your search. After they find a site
and a picture of their animal, they draw it.
We talk about using our observation skills. Think about size,
shape, color etc. Due to our time constraints this project takes two days.
On the second day we paint our animals. The children again use
their IPads to find the animals photo and paint what they see. I love the
details they include. Many will ask for pink or light blue because they see a
bit in their picture. They must choose all their colors etc. It is not my work,
so it is not my job to do it for them (my motto).
On day three and four we repeat this whole process but they must
choose another animal and they may choose any animal they wish not necessarily
one from the sort cards. This year we mixed it up and used pastels on our
second animal.
The children also painted leaves for trees and cut vines to hang.
It by far is one of my favorite displays we did all year. The other classes
loved walking by as it was so bright and colorful for early spring!
What are your favorite units to teach?
