rainforrest

Mrs. Miller’s 4^th/5^th class carried out an extensive study of the tropical rain forest. The students studied the living layers of the tropical rain forest as well as food from the forest and its indigenous populations. The students also studied and charted the past and present destruction of the Costa Rican rain forest. This interdisciplinary unit included the construction of a tropical rain forest in Mrs. Miller’s classroom. The students utilized their creative and artistic skills in "building" the tropical rain forest from the forest floor up to the emergent layer of the forest. The students also utilized their math skills in scaling down the actual size of the rain forest to adapt it to the size of the classroom. Mrs. Miller’s students also constructed a classroom waterfall with running water which provided a habitat for the aquatic life of the classroom tropical rain forest. A tape recorder was used to provide actual sounds of a tropical rain forest in the classroom. This greatly enhanced the classroom constructed rain forest.

The photograph on the left shows the canopy and emergent layers of the classroom rain forest. The students used camouflaged netting to form the emergent layer, which hung from the ceiling of the classroom. This layer of the classroom rain forest was less dense than the rest of the layers as to accurately represent the actual emergent layer of a tropical rain forest.

This photograph illustrates the forest floor, the understory, and the canopy of the classroom-constructed tropical rain forest. The constructed forest floor consisted of a lot of leaves, limbs, and tree trunks. The students also constructed animals for each forest layer that would be the appropriate habitat for that particular animal. The understory included trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, plants, and smaller trees. The limbs and tall slender trees formed the canopy for the classroom rain forest. The students added a lot of insects and reptiles to this layer as well as birds and butterflies.