Rain Forest Animal Reports

We started our rain forest animal research project by roaming the room to look at the various choices we have from the Wildlife Fact File cards that we so graciously donated to me by a former student's grandparent. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Adams! I had purchased one set for the classroom, but this addition really makes their work complete.

After they spent time roaming the room, the students selected their animal to research.

Next, they used their card to start the research and prewriting stage.

Planting Day

We are so lucky because the City of Kent sponsors a terrific program that we are privileged to enjoy!

This is Ms. Andrews. She works for the city. She it teaching us about our plant.

These are the guys from the city who helped us plant our dogwood bush.

Now we get to watch them grow. We will spend the next few weeks measuring our plants and watering them. We will take them home to plant some time in June.

A big thanks to the City of Kent, Ms. Andrews and her crew!

Rain Forest Mural

Here is the beginning stages of our mural. A big thanks to Mr. Domingo and Mrs. Wong for making this mural for our class.

And here is the "after" picture! Voila!

 

Mr. Domingo placed out silly monkeys on the hallway across from the mural to give them room to move.

Here are our native tropical rain forest villagers.

We learned a lot about bromeliads. Can you see the frogs in their water? This is where the male frogs place the tadpoles to grow.

Our butterflies and hummingbirds fly in the canopy layer.

 



April Fool's Day

On April Fool's Day, I told the students that I made them some "brown E's" and this did not go over well when they expected brownies. 

So, on April 2, I brought them brownies. 

Navigator Ticket for Us All?

Navigator ticket for our entire class!

March Navigator Award Winners

 Congratulations to our Award Winners!

Act Safely

Show Respect

Be Responsible

Afternoon on the Amazon

For our rain forest unit of study, we are reading the book Afternoon on the Amazon by Mary Pope Osborne. This is one of the Magic Tree House books.

After reading this book as a class, we are now reading a few chapters a day with partners.

The partners switch daily.

It's fun to learn together.

 

Woodland Park Zoo Field Trip, Part 3

Next, we started our walking tour through the temperate rain forest.

Here is a nursing log. A log that used to be a living tree which has fallen and now is home to newer bushes and trees.

Owls which "hooted" for us.

Tess showing us the difference between a crow's feathers and an owl's feathers. She let us hear the difference. The crow's feathers were loud. The owl's feathers were quiet. This is an adaptation for the owls who hunt at night and need to be stealth like - quiet to sneak up on their prey.

The owl feather is on the left.

Now, Tess is showing us the difference between a fox pelt in the winter time versus the summer time. The winter pelt of a fox is thicker to keep the fox warm in the cold environment. This thickness comes from a down layer, close to the skin. This is another animal adaptation. The down fur is shed in the warmer months, so the pelt becomes thinner.

Tess let us touch the pelts.

Tess also took us into the Bug House. We got to see insects that help keep both the tropical and temperate rain forests' forest floors filled with nutrients for the other living plant live to use to thrive and grow.

Now Tess is showing us how much rain is in the temperate rain forest. We get about 30 inches a year. That was not far from the start of the yarn. The furthest point shows how much rain falls per year in the tropical rain forest: 180 inches!!

Another peacock strutting around the grounds.

The jaguar called Jr.

These picture show what an emergent tree would look like in the tropical rain forest. Here is a shot of the buttress roots that help stabalize the tree because it is so tall.

This shows how wide this emergent tree would be. We walked right through it. Look for the buttress roots. That's one wide tree trunk.

This shows the canopy layer of a rain forest. It is very dense which means it is hard to see through this layer. The sun has a hard time coming through, so the leaves must be large in order to soak up as much sunlight as possible.

 Here we are in the Savanah hut. We noticed this hut is made just like the Native American homes - thatched roof and sapling sides which have been braided, or woven together.

Do you see the two hippos? Look closely.

We sure wish we had more time at the zoo. This field trip is free. The zoo writes a grant that pays for the $16 fee per student/chaperone/teacher and the $1200 bus ride for our entire second grade. We have to leave early, so that the buses can get to the high school students for their rides home. It's a bummer to have to leave so soon, but we are lucky to get this opportunity.