OBJECTIVE: To identify layers of tropical rainforest; to locate plants and animals and various layers

GRADE: Primary, intermediate, secondary

MATERIALS: carpet rolls painted brown, old sheets dyed green, green nylon netting, tree leaf patterns, animal patterns, paper mache paste (flour and water), old newspapers, old plastic jugs, fish nets dyed green, wooden parrot cut-outs (cut by high school industrial arts students), felt, plastic ants, green and brown twine, green yarn, construction paper

PROCEDURES: Build a classroom rainforest:

• Emergents - carpet rolls painted brown with green netting stick out of the top (4-5 per classroom)
• Canopy - carpet rolls for trees (cut in one & a half inch pieces); children trace patterns for various types of leaves
• Canopy - old sheets dyed green torn into strips and knotted; hang from lights
• Canopy - fish nets dyed green; hang from lights
• Understory - liana and vines made from green and brown colored twine with leaves cut out of paper
• Forest floor - with school's permission may use shredded tree bark, or after all these steps are completed, the janitor will have such a hard time cleaning the classroom that you will have your own leaf litter
• Animals - paper mache animals using bottles, old newspapers, tubes or any other viable material (made as true to life size as possible)
  • Make macaws out of wood products using felt strips for wings and tail feathers leaf cutter ants - glue leaf pieces (paper) onto plastic
  • Ants (may be store bought)

PARENT/CHILD EXPERIENCE: Extra, extra fun with loads of hands-on experiences for kids as they watch over a period of time, just a couple of weeks, how a rainforest complete with plants and animals grows right in their classrooms. At this time, parents are invited into the classroom to "take a hike" through a rainforest with their children as their tour guides!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Learn the following four layers of a rainforest:

• Emergent
• Canopy
• Understory
• Forest floor and how animals use these four layers.

EVALUATION: Children will identify rainforest plants and animals to their parents at the parent program held at the end of the rainforest classroom project. The children will also write a report on the rainforest and the plants and animals which they have learned about. Further, they should describe what the plants and animals are, name the various classifications and physical characteristics of both, what they eat, identify the predators and the prey, and what layers of the rainforest are occupied by each plant and/or animal.