Rainforest

We turned our classroom into a rainforest! 

We turned our apple tree into a kapok tree.  The kids got to sponge paint green at the easel then we turned them into leaves on our tree. 

We read the book "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynne Cherry and learned about the importance of this tree to the rainforest.

The kids really enjoyed singing about the layers of the rainforest.  Ask them to sing it to you, they really know the words and actions!

There are four layers in the rainforest

"If you're happy and you know it"

There are four layers in the rainforest.  Four layers!

There are four layers in the rainforest.  Four layers!

Forest floor, understory, canopy and emergent layer.

There are four layers in the rainforest.  Four layers!

We also talked about and decorated a sloth.  We tried to come up with a name but there were 22 different names and we couldn't all agree on one so everybody could call it what they wanted to. (:  Ask your child what their name was.  We learned that sloths grow green algae to match the forest.   

 The kids got to use lick 'em stick 'em paper.  Some liked it and some did not!  (:  Ask your child what they thought of it.

We've been practicing our names and this week the kids got to put a monkey smelly sticker (smelled like bananas) when they wrote their name.  Some are learning to trace, some are writing in on their own and some are learning to write their last names too.  Remember to give your child many opportunities to work with writing materials (pencils, crayons, colored pencils and markers)!  This can be free drawing or coloring books.  A fun way is to write or draw pictures to relatives that live far away. 

Another fun book we read this week was, "Over in the Jungle" by Marianne Berkes.  This is similar to our "Way up in the Arctic" book we read during our arctic unit.  The kids really enjoy these books and it shows us what kinds of animals live in each of these regions. 

Our classes got to taste and explore a coconut and pineapple.  Not many kids had ever tried a coconut before.  They got to shake it and hear the milk inside.  Ask your child if they tried the coconut milk.  Some LOVED it and some....not so much!  (:

We cracked our coconut open and also tried a pineapple.