The Rainforest

Overall lesson topic/title: The Rainforest

Grade Level: 2

nd

Learning goals:

(Content Learning Goal(s)- 2-LS4-1: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the
diversity of life in different habitats.
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Science & Engineering Practices: Planning and Carrying Out Investigationsplanning and
carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in K-2 builds on
prior experiences and progresses to simple investigations based on fair tests, which provide
data to support explanations or design solutions
!

Make observations (firsthand or from media) to collect data that can be used to make
comparisons.

Disciplinary Core Ideas: LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humansthere are many different kinds of
living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water.

Materials & supplies needed:

-Rainforest anchor chart
-Tape
-Cut outs of numerous Rainforest animals
-The Umbrella picture book by Jan Brett
-Exit slips
-Pencils

Introduction to the Lesson:

(5-7 minutes)
-Teacher will begin by having students grouped up front as a whole group. (Teacher will
be sure to remind students that they need to find a smart spot to sit that makes them a
great learner/listener and if a friend is distracting them, they should find a new spot).
-Teacher will remind students that last week during science, we learned about all four of
the different layers.
-Teacher will ask for volunteers to help her label each level of the rainforest with premade nametags, in order to recall previously learned information.
-During the placement of each label, teacher will ask students to recall facts they know
about each layer.
-After the placement of all labels, the teacher will explain that today in science, we will be
learning about the ANIMALS of the rainforest.
-Before moving on, teacher will elicit background knowledge from students to see what
they already know about different rainforest animals.
-After discussion about some animals, teacher will explain that knowing about the
animals as well as the layers and plants will help us to understand how life in the
rainforest is so diverse.

Outline of Each Activity During the Lesson (15-20 minutes)

-Teacher will begin by showing some rainforest animals that she has cut out and explain
to students that they will help to place these animals in the layer where they live.
-Teacher will show the story The Umbrella by Jan Brett to students and tell students to

Cognitive, social, and linguistic

support during each event:

-For ELLs, repeat new vocabulary

many times and explain what words
mean, in-depth.
-Explain new information slowly &
more than once.

try to look for the animals that were just shown

-(During reading, teacher will point out the different animals)
-Teacher will ask for volunteers to see if they can remember an animal from each
level)i.e. Bats/Birds emergent, Sloth canopy, tree frog, jaguar understory,
earthworms forest floor
[Teacher will pass out one animal to each student]
(1) Teacher will say, We are going to start at the bottom most, darkest layer!The
Forest floor. Who can remember an animal we learned lives down here from our
Rainforest flip books? (Answer = Earthworms)
-Teacher will wait for student with Earthworm to raise hand and then say Good! Now I
am going to tell you the names of some other animals that live in this layer!
Animals: Poison dart frog, giant anteater, leaf cutter & army ants, scorpion,
tarantula
-After placement of animals in forest floor layer on chart, teacher will ask: Why do you
think these animals live in this layer?
(After mentioning these animalsteacher will move on to say...now there are a couple
animals that live on the forest floor, but they are really living in the river or in a body of
water)
Teacher will ask, Who has an animal that they think might live in the water on the forest
floor?
Water animals: piranha, anaconda, black caiman crocodile
-After placement of animals in water of forest floor layer on chart, teacher will ask: Why
do you think these animals live in this layer? Why do these animals live in the water?
(2) Teacher will say, Now we are going to move up to the next layerthe Understory!
Who can raise their hand and remind me of an animal we know for sure lives in this layer
because we read and wrote about it in our rainforest flipbook? (Answer = Jaguar or
Tree Frog)
-After students tell about these animals, teacher will say Great! Now Im going to name
a few other animals that live there! Some of these animals were in the story that we just
read too!
Animals: Tapir, gorilla, boa constrictor
-After placement of animals in understory layer on chart, teacher will ask: Why do you
think these animals live in this layer?
(3) Teacher will say, Nextwe are moving even further up the rainforest layers and
meeting in the canopy! Who can remember an animal we read and wrote about in our
rainforest flip books who lives in this layer? (Answer = Toucan, Sloth)
-After students raise their hands for these animals, teacher will list other animals found in
the canopy
Animals: Kinkajou, coati, chameleon, iguana, squirrel monkey
-After placement of animals in canopy layer on chart, teacher will ask: Why do you think
these animals live in this layer?
(4) Teacher will say, Finally, we are going to talk about the animals who live all the way
at the top of the rainforest in the Emergent layer! Teacher will ask, Who can remember
an animal we read about who lives up in this layer (from our rainforest flip book?
(Answer = Bat, Butterfly, Eagle)
-After getting student answers, teacher will list other animals found way up in the
emergent layer.
Animals: Scarlet macaw, fruit bat, blue-morpho butterfly, harpy eagle, hummingbird
-After placement of animals in emergent layer on chart, teacher will ask: Why do you
think these animals live in this layer?
As students share and contribute, make sure to actively engage them by
reminding them how exciting life in the rainforest is! Help students to build ideas
off of one another.

Closing Summary for the Lesson: (3 minutes)

After discussing all of the different animals in each layer, teacher will say, Class, we
learned about a lot of different animals that live in each layer. However, sometimes
these animals move throughout the layers, so when you are reading books or looking up

-For ELLs, repeat new vocabulary

many times and explain what words
mean, in-depth.
-Explain new information slowly &
more than once.

the animals you might find that they are listed in other places. If you remember in the
story, the animals were moving throughout the layers!
-Teacher will say, this is only a few of the millions of species of animals living in the
rainforestbut that is why the rainforest is so cool, because of how diverse it is! We are
going to start researching some of these animals and each of you will get to choose an
animal you are really interested in to learn more about.
-At the conclusion of lesson, teacher will dismiss students randomly to next learning
activity (i.e. whoever is wearing blue today, whoever put their hair up today, who ever
bought lunch todayetc.)

Formative Assessment Task:

Rationale: For this unit/lesson, it is important for students to understand that the
rainforest is diverse. In order to do so, students must make their own observations of
plants and animals. This task aligns with the NGSS because it asks students to take
what they have learned and apply it. This task will allow students to demonstrate what
they have learned and will show the teacher what they may have misconceptions about.

Task Detailed Description:

Students will go back to seats and write out a sentence or two about any layer of their
choice and an animal that lives there. Students will be asked to explain why they think
the animal lives there (based on what we learned previously about layers). Students will
be told that their goal is to choose a rainforest layer, an animal and to explain what they
have learned.
(An adaptation for students would be to ask them to draw out the layer and animal,
instead)

Exemplary Assessment Response

Features:
1. One specific animal named and the
layer it lives in
2. An explanation of why the animals
lives in the layer (i.e. piranha lives in
the forest floor layer because it is a
fish and needs to be in water to
survive)
3. A fact about the layer that makes it
obvious they understood previously
learned information.