Imagination Celebration Curriculum

Create Your Own Forest Canopy

BUILD YOUR OWN RAINFOREST IN THE CLASSROOM

Purpose: To have students create a classroom forest. To understand the four layers of the rainforest. To provide a habitat for the creatures they may create.
Motivation: There are several excellent videos made for children about the rainforest: World Wildlife Find – Rainforest Rap, 3,2,1 Contact – You Can’t Grow Home Again. In addition there are many others that, although they are not produced directly for children, can provide a wonderful visual experience as well as interesting facts about the rainforest. Resources material can be found in the Library or researched on the web or National Geographic. Check out the rainforest paintings by artist Mary Helsaple at http://helsaple.com. Rent PBS “Living Edens; Manu Peru’s Hidden Rainforest” form your library or from video store.

Material: Army camouflage netting (or fishnet or fabric netting), carpet roll tube, Sono tube, covered wire, paper creepers, masking tape, tissue tape, wire, burlap, coat hanger wires, large green florist paper (or large construction paper), large green yarn, as many shades of green, brown and gold paper as you can gather for leaves. (call the Imagination Celebration Office 719/598-3344 for free camo meeting.)

Procedure:
1. To create the forest canopy:

Borrow or purchase a small piece of Army camouflage netting and
hang from the ceiling in the corner of the room with GIANT paper clips.

or hang a small piece of fishnet or fabric netting and add silk, fabric or paper leaves. (Caution: Do Not block any EXIT Doors, fire equipment,or attach to sprinkle heads.)

2. Have the students imagine that the emergent layer of the rainforest tree is
sticking out through the roof of the school.

create a trunk for the emergent layer with a large Sono tube. These may
be purchased from a concrete or ready mix supply company. Old carpet
tubes work also.
add ribs for a Kapok tree out of rolled cardboard and paper mache.

3. To create the understory:

gather several different size carpet roll tubes (ask a local carpet store
to save them for you) for trees.
cut stripes of burlap into 6” widths and fringe 3” into the strip. Staple these
strips to the carpet rolls to create a palm tree trunk. Overlap each layer
by 3”.
create vines from yarn and construction paper and add all of the trees in your rainforest.
create other vines from paper covered wire and paper creapers. Cut the paper creapers, open and cut into a leaf shape. Add to vines with masking tape. Tissue paper flowers may be added as well.

4. To create the forest floor:

cover the floor of this area with a variety of brown and gold leaves.
These leaves should look like that are in a state of decomposing.
To create living plants on the forest floor, use margarine tubs with
plaster of Paris or floral foam bricks to secure sticks or pipe cleaner
in cluster. Add leaves to these and cover the base with Spanish moss.

Ask parents or other teachers if you can borrow any silk plants. Add the silk
Plants or any real house type plants to the environment.

To create a pond area, cut a pond shape from rolled blue paper. Cut a
similar shape form a blue cellophane paper and place it on top of the rolled paper.
Make water lily leaves and flowers. Rocks to line the pond may be made form hunks of foam painted black or gray.

5. To add sounds choose form a variety of rainforest or jungle cassette tapes and play them when the students are having a quiet time. Turn the lights down to simulate the dark forest floor.

6. Add creatures to the classroom rainforest as you create them. Remember to put every student’s name on every piece as they will want them back when it is time to take down the environment.

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