The grand kids will be back for a visit soon and my husband and I are getting ready for the next fun learning experience. This home project will be about the Rain Forest which is a subject we both love.
photo from .rainforest-facts
I’ve been collecting magazines and printing photos from the internet of animals that live in the Rain Forests.
Concentration Game:
I’ve printed off two of each animal and will be gluing them on index cards so we can play RainForest Concentration to help them identify and remember the types of plants, trees and animals living there.
photo from .rainforest-facts
We will also be designing our own rainforest on a paper plate and we will be discussing the layers of the rainforest. Decorating both sides of the paper plates, we can then hang them from a string and suspend them where they can twirl and we can see both sides.
The bottom layer is the floor of the rainforest.
I’ll have construction paper for them to design their own rainforest bottom layer and there will be lots of pictures for them to choose of animals that live in this layer of the forest.
snakes, lizards and ground mammals.
photo from .rainforest-facts
The level of the rainforest between the forest floor and the canopy is called the understory.
Many plant species reside in the understory some of these include the rainforest trees, ground ferns, tree ferns, zamias, cunjevois, palm-lilies, native bananas, climbing plants and epiphytes.
photo from .rainforest-facts
Lichens, mosses, ferns and orchids (epiphytes) are plants that cling and live on other trees and plants for attachment purposes. They are not parasites as they cause no harm or rob the host tree of nutrients. Their roots absorb moisture from rainwater as it runs downs tree trunks, and absorb nutrients from rotting plant-life.
Large tree branches in the understorey support many ferns such as the Bird’s Nest, Elkhorn, Staghorn and Basket Fern.
Small creatures such as insects and other small reptiles that normally live on the forest floor commonly live or take shelter within the plant-life located in the Understory.
photo from .rainforest-facts
The canopy is the third layer to the rainforests. The canopy is home to creatures that live in trees, such as monkeys, birds such as macaws, and some reptiles. Large cats, that are temporary visitors, also can be found in the canopy section.
The final layer of the forest is the emergent layer. This is home to many rainforest birds.
photo from .rainforest-facts
I’ll be posting pictures when they have completed this activity.
Here is a nice site I found that will give you lots of ideas, photos to print and books to read about the rainforests.
What other games and activities can you think to use in a RainForest lesson of your own?
Feel free to post them on my facebook page and share your ideas as well.
about gracehodgin
Grandma Blogger encouraging grand parents to remain active in the lives of their grand children and to inspire imagination and creativity.
When Grace is not writing articles for her blog then she morphs into GracieLoo and is off to ZombieZoo where she is the resident Grandma who hands out cookies, kisses, band-aids for booboos and reads stories to her beloved ZombieZoo Residents.
cute ideas
little loves rainforest animals- all animals, haha
The photographs actually make me homesick. All of them could easily have been taken in the stomping ground I grew up in. Is there any way to identify where they were actually taken? I’m sure the folks back home in Belize would find this article extremely interesting. We’re always using books and materials from elsewhere whilst having the richness of the rainforest all around us.
We are huge nature lovers in my house and always wanted to go to the rainforest. Looked into it for a honeymoon destination (weird?) but it was too expensive!
You come up with the coolest activities for your grandkids!
I shall adopt you as my kids’ honorary grandmom and send them to you to do cool activities.
How neat! Thanks for sharing!
What a fun Grandma you are!! I bet they get to your house and don’t want to leave.
this looks like such a fun project! one of my favorite kids books of all time is about the symbiotic nature of the rain forest – it’s called the Great Kapok Tree…
How fun! A Grandma project. I love how you involve your grandbabies in educational activities.
Those are great ideas!
A fantastic idea! Great job, Grandma! Go, green
so cool!! thanks for sharing