Activities on Rainforest Layers

With many of the Earth's forested spaces becoming threatened by logging and other practices, it is especially pertinent that children become aware of the complexity and characteristics of these embattled ecosystems. There are many ways to build children's interests in rainforests that are neither too expensive nor boring. You can adapt them to your classroom or organization.

Identifying Layers

• The first thing you can do is have students immerse themselves in actually memorizing and studying the four different levels of all tropical rainforests: the emergent, canopy, understory layers and the forest floor. One option you could use is to separate the students into four teams or squads whose job it is to research a single layer and then share their findings and information with the rest of the class or group. Exactly how to share these findings will determine how fun and engaging the activity really is.

Squads

• The Phoenix Zoo suggests that you clear a wall or long bulletin board. Then have all the students construct a colorful representation on the layer that they have been assigned or chosen. Drawings and images created by the students can be placed alongside or atop one another to represent the forest layers. The ability to draw and conceive of their own pictures may allow the child's imagination to take over.

Memorization Games

• Some of the most intriguing aspects of the rainforest for kids are the animals that live there. There are a number of ways you can have the kids learn them. One choice is to separate the animals by the layer they reside in. Then your aforementioned squad can continue with a description and list of the animals once they have completed the layer identification assignment. Edu Place suggests giving each child a letter or two from the alphabet -- with the exception of X -- and having them find which animals in the forest correspond with the letter given. They can then prepare flash cards with info on the back for each animal and share it with the group.

Materials

• To do many of these projects or activities, you need little more than common classroom materials and artistic tools. For the drawing, get some crayons or magic markers along with some conventional construction paper. If you or the kids are interested in forming some collages or layered looks, some scissors and glue sticks can accomplish this quite nicely. You may want some books or internet access to help the students visualize the flora, fauna and animal life that reside in their area of focus.