TITLE
: Layers of The Rainforest
GRADE: First
LENGTH: 90 minutes (30, 60 minutes)
CONCEPT: The rainforest has many different layers to it in is vertical orientation.
RATIONALE: The students know that there are plants and animals n the rainforest. The lesson gives them a better idea as to where those things are located in the rainforest.
STUDENT OBJECTIVE:
- The students will listen attentively to the information about the rainforest while being read Rain Forest Secrets by Arthur Dorros.
- The students will write one "secret" (fact) of the rainforest they learned about from the book in their learning logs after the teacher models how to do this on chart paper.
- Each student will make a rainforest animal mobile to be exhibited in the classroom independently at his/her seat following the full-class introduction to the rainforest layers.
- Each student will place one of their rainforest animal cards on the model rainforest bulletin board in the hall. They'll do so after making their mobile, placing the animal in its proper layer of the rainforest.
- The students will complete the rainforest worksheets after their mobiles have been completed, coloring them to make them more decorative and appropriate for display.
MATERIALS: Rain Forest Secrets by Arthur Dorros
: Chart paper and marker
: Learning Logs
: Rain Forest Animals mobile kit
- mobile instruction sheet
-
animal card sheets 1, 2, and 3
: rainforest worksheets
-
The Rainforest is Hot
-
There Are Gorilla in the Rainforest
LESSON BODY:
ANTICIPATORY SET:
- Ask the students to volunteer a few facts about the rainforests that they learned the previous day.
- Explain that the book today's lesson starts with is about the lesser known facts about the rainforest. "In fact, they're the secrets of the rainforest. Just look at the book's title!"
PROCEDURES:
- Read Rain Forest Secrets to the class. Ask the students to pay careful attention to the animals they see because lots of work will be done during the rest of the lesson dealing with the animals of the rainforest.
- Following the reading, ask the students to reiterate the name of the different layers of the rainforest. Write them down on chart paper. Add the emergent layer (above the canopy), which the book didn't include.
- Ask the student to name some of the animals they heard mentioned in the book. Write them down on the chart paper.
- Write the following phrase on the chart paper:
I learned about the rainforest today. In it is a _____________________.
- Pass out Learning logs while explaining that the students should rewrite the sentences in their Learning Logs and complete the second sentence on their own.
FOLLW-UP ACTVITY:
- Explain that morning work will be a fun application of the things they learned about in the book and on the precious day.
- Show the students the mobile materials and read the directions.
- Show the sample mobile to the class.
- Remind the students that they should color the animals and words on the mobile since they will be displayed in the classroom.
- Ask the students to hold onto the fourth animal card, having written their name on the back of it. Explain that this card will become part of the display in the hallway, the class's rainforest.
- Suggest that the students use the books in the classroom to help them decide which layer of the rainforest, which they'll learn more about in their reading groups, that animal lives in. Inform them that this would be good use of their "free" time.
- Explain the other two worksheets to the students, reading the directions. Tell them that they are to be done after the mobile is completed.
- Send the students to do their work at their seats.
CLOSURE:
- Take groups of 4 students out into the hall with their fourth animals cards in hand.
- Ask the students which part of their rainforest the animals belong in. They should decide based on the book read to them and the other resource books in the classroom. If the students cannot decide on their own, show them the list of animals in their proper layer and ask the students to locate their animal. Once they've done either to decide where their animals belong, they may attach their animal to
the hallway display.
