Teacher Notes
Rainforest Detective: Food in the Rainforest > Print/View All Notes
In this activity, students will explore how animals in the rainforest meet their needs for food. They will first roll over pictures of rainforest animals to learn about what they eat. Then, they will match pictures of animals with pictures of the foods they eat in their Rainforest Detective Notebooks.
Students should complete the activities on pages 2 and 3 in their notebooks as they explore the online resource. They may do this at their desks if your entire class will be exploring together on a large computer screen or interactive whiteboard. If students need to move to a computer station or computer lab, they will need to take their notebooks, scissors, glue and a pencil with them.
Keep in mind that there may be vocabulary that is new to students in this activity. You may need to explain that when hummingbirds "hover," they float in the air without moving forward or backward. (You may even wish to have students act out this behavior to really bring it home!) Another word that may be new is "fungus." Explain to students that a fungus is a living thing that is neither a plant nor an animal. Examples of fungi that students may be familiar with are mushrooms, yeast and mold.
When students have finished matching the animals with the foods they eat, lead a class discussion about the animals that the children found hidden in the rainforest. Some animals may be familiar (frog, hummingbird) and some may be unfamiliar (tapir, capuchin monkey). You may wish to compare unfamiliar animals to animals that are more familiar to children (for example, tapirs, like pigs, use their long snouts to move the dirt, branches, grasses and other obstacles in the environment in order to find the food they need). You may point out that animals have relationships with plants and other animals based on what they eat. (For example, hummingbirds have a relationship with flowers because the hummingbirds eat nectar from the flowers.)
If you would like to extend the activity, you may gather some books about the rainforest and read them aloud.
Standards Addressed:
K-LS1-1
,
ESS3.A
,
LS1.C
,
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RI1 CCR
,
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI7 CCR
