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Rainforest Reports

Reporting on Rainforest Animals

Assign each child an animal. Write the following questions on the black board or print them out on a report instruction sheet. Ask for as many answers as possible, and set the report length at a minimum of one page. Suggest some resources, like an encyclopedia, the Internet, or the rainforest books in your school library. Your students might like to write reports as if they were recording interviews with the animals and include some questions of their own.
What does your animal look like?
Where in the rainforest does your animal live?
What does it eat? Is it prey for any other animals?
What does it do all day long? Or all night long?
What are its most interesting or unusual characteristics?
Rainforest Animal Paragraphs

For a shorter homework assignment, ask each child to write a paragraph on the rainforest animal of their choice. Paragraphs may be limited to one aspect of the animal: it's appearance, how it eats, what it eats, etc. A series of one-paragraph assignments is a relatively painless way to introduce researching and report writing.

Group Reports

Divide class into small groups (4 to 6) and have each group report on a rainforest layer: forest floor, understory, canopy, emergent layer. Each report should include answers to the following questions.
Where is your layer in relation to other layers?
What is the climate like in your layer (humid, sunny, shady)?
What kinds of plants live in your layer?
What kinds of animals live in your layer?
What are the strangest or most interesting plants and animals in your layer?
When reports are complete, have children draw pictures illustrating the layers.

Lists of Rainforest Animals, Insects & Plants

Rainforest Animals of Latin America
Bird of Paradise, Bottlenose Dolphin, Capybara, Cassowary, Coatimundi, Coral Snake, Crocodile, Cuscus, Eyelash Viper, Gecko, Hawksbill Turtle, Hickatee, Howler Monkey, Iguana, Jabiru Stork, Jaguar, Jaguarundi, Lemur, Macaw, Manatee, Margay, Ocelot, Paca or Gibnut, Peccary, Puma, Quetzal, Red-eyed Tree Frog, Spider Monkey, Tapir, Three-toed Sloth, Toucan, Tree Kangaroo

Insects and Spiders
Army Ant, Azteca Ant, Birdwing Butterfly, Blue Morpho Butterfly, Centipede, Clear-winged Butterfly, Fig Wasp, Goliath Bird-eating Spider, Katydid, Leaf-cutter Ant, Millipede, Monarch Butterfly, Mosquito, Orchid Bee, Parasol, Ant, Sloth Moth, Tailless Whip Scorpian, Tarantula, Termites, Walking Sticks

Rainforest Plants
Bromeliad, Liana, Kapok Tree, Liverwort, Orchid, Strangler Fig


Copyright © 1997-2008 Earth’s Birthday Project. All rights reserved.
Permission to reproduce for educational use only.