Every Animal Needs a Home

Skip Main Navigation
  • Home
  • Lesson Activities
    • Introduction
    • What Is a Rainforest?
    • Food in the Rainforest
    • Who Lives Here?
    • Who Lives Here? Game
    • Water for Everyone
    • Needing Each Other
    • Deforestation
    • Preserving the Rainforest
    • Plan a Rainforest Habitat
    • Build a Rainforest Habitat
    • Goodbye, Rainforest
  • Student Resources
    • Table of Contents
    • Key Words
    • Rainforest Detective Notebook
    • Engineering Design Process
  • Teacher Resources
    • Lesson Preparation
    • Lesson Overview
    • Objectives
    • Schedule
    • Using This Site
    • Technology
    • Essential Questions
    • Enduring Understandings
    • Background Information
    • Teacher Notes
    • Appendices
  • STEM Careers
Skip Table of Contents
  • Lesson Preparation
  • Lesson Overview
  • Objectives
  • Schedule
  • Using This Site
  • Technology
  • Essential Questions
  • Enduring Understandings
  • Background Information
  • Teacher Notes
  • Appendices

Teacher Notes

Plan a Rainforest Habitat > Print/View All Notes

In this activity, students will use what they have learned in the lesson so far to plan and create a virtual habitat for a rainforest animal of their choosing. The habitat must meet the animal's needs for water, food and shelter.

Begin by breaking your students into groups of 2 or 3 children. Show and explain the graphic of the engineering design process on page 6 in their Rainforest Detective Notebooks. Explain that they will be following these steps as they create their animal habitats. Then have students watch the following videos to learn more about the process engineers use to solve problems. Ask students to think about how they can use this same approach in designing their habitats.

> Engineering opens in new window
(from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
On the NASA page, select from a video format listed on the right.

> Perfect Fit opens in new window
(National Defense Education Program: Lab TV)

Next, ask students to turn to page 7 of their Rainforest Detective Notebooks. Students should begin by selecting an animal and drawing a picture of it in their notebooks. Alternatively, they can cut out and paste a picture of the animal in their notebooks (pictures of all animals can be found on pages 11-16 in their notebooks). Then, ask students to brainstorm in their small groups about what this animal might need in its habitat. Have your students examine the pictures of water, plants, insects, etc., that appear on page 10.  You may ask them to classify which items might be useful in building habitats for particular animals in the rainforest.

Next, have students work with their groups to cut and paste the things that their animals will need to survive. Facilitate small group discussion among students, and ask them to explain why each item they selected is important for their habitat. If students have trouble remembering what their animals need in terms of food, shelter and water, have them refer back to earlier pages in their Rainforest Detective Notebooks.

Looking ahead to the next activity, Build a Rainforest, students will continue following the engineering design process and use the Habitat Builder Tool to create their virtual habitats. You will need to take your students to the computer lab, or if you have access to a computer in your classroom, work with each group at the computer station.

The correct choices for each animal's habitat are shown below.
Correct choices for food:
Tapir: leaves, fruit
Toucan: lizards, eggs, fruit
Leafcutter Ant: fungus on leaves
Hummingbird: bugs, nectar
Capuchin Monkey: fruit, lizard, bird
Red-eyed tree frog: bugs

Correct choices for water sources:
Tapir: river/pond
Toucan: water of leaves, fruit
Leafcutter Ant: water on leaves, puddle
Hummingbird: flowers
Capuchin Monkey: water on leaves, pond
Red-eyed tree frog: pond

Correct choices for shelter:
Tapir: large pond with leaf clusters on the ground
Toucan:  hole in tree
Leafcutter Ant: hole in a mound of dirt
Hummingbird: cluster of leaves including a bird's nest
Capuchin Monkey: cluster of branches in a tree with leaves
Red-eyed tree frog: cluster of large leaves in a tree

Standards Addressed: ESS3-1 , STEM Standards of Practice 1 , STEM Standards of Practice 3 , STEM Standards of Practice 5 , STEM Standards of Practice 6 opens in new window

> Go to Lesson Activity

<< Go to First page < Go to Previous page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to page 8
  • Go to page 9
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to page 11
  • Go to page 12
Go to Next page> Go to Last page>>
Site Map | Accessibility | About

This website is a production of Maryland Public Television/Thinkport in collaboration with the Maryland State Department of Education. The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Thinkport Maryland State Department of Education Maryland - STEM education

2013 Copyright Maryland State Department of Education

Creative Commons logo

Contact the MSDE Office of Instructional Technology for copyright questions.