Rainforest Alliance

Step 1 -- Connect (The Concept to Prior Knowledge)

Challenge

Identify the ways that weather can change landscapes. By simulating an upstream flood, children will understand why rivers get muddy and murky in downstream coastal habitats. This will help them understand how Manny's home was affected by erosion.

Materials

- Book: The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
- Map of local watershed (available through the Environmental Protection Agency) -- Simulated watershed system: 3" high baking pan, dirt and clean water

Procedure

1. Discuss where the water in the school faucets originates. Sources of water are often a great distance away from the faucet. The manatee and loggerhead swim in water that originates far from their home, which means that upstream activity around rivers can affect the health and safety of downstream water-dwelling species.
2. Read The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.
3. Show the students a map of their watershed. Trace the route your drinking water takes as it travels the course of the watershed and comes out in the school faucets.
4. Discuss how water picks up loose materials as it moves.
5. Show students how water picks up materials along the riverway by creating a simulated watershed in a classroom or play space. Fill a 3" high baking pan with dirt. Sculpt the dirt into a landscape that roughly simulates a downward incline to the ocean from hills. Have students take a sample of the clean water at the start and compare it to the murky water that lands in a pool at the end of the waterway.
6. Discuss how the trees on a riverbank can affect changes in water quality with large amounts of moving water. (You could simulate another environment using pieces of sod to stabilize the riverbank). This will show students how rooted plants lining a river hold in soil. Ask them to compare the results in water clarity to the previous experiment. Or, do both experiments outside using two different sites in the schoolyard and have students describe the differences.

Step 2 -- Literature/Discuss (Give Expert Information Book; Ask Questions)

Challenge

Students discover the habitat of the jaguar and the howling monkey. They begin to conceptualize how life for the jaguar and monkey is tied to the manatee and loggerhead and ways that it is similar to their watershed.

Materials

- Video: A Walk in the Rainforest available from Bullfrog Films
- Book: At Home in the Rain Forest, by Diane Willow and Laura Jacques
- Book: Here is the Tropical Rain Forest, by Madeleine Dunphy
- Species profiles: jaguar and howler monkey

Procedure

1. Show students A Walk in the Rainforest available from Bullfrog Films. In this video, an 8 year-old boy takes his friends on a tour of a rainforest in Belize. The video portrays a variety of plants and animals that live there.
2. Read At Home in the Rain Forest, by Diane Willow and Laura Jacques. This story describes the sights and sounds of the rainforest, introducing the reader to the plants and animals that inhabit this precious ecosystem.
3. Read Here is the Tropical Rain Forest, by Madeleine Dunphy. This story has a cumulative text, taking the reader on a journey through the rainforest from the mossy forest floor up to the emergent layer at the top.
4. Show students the species profiles of the jaguar and the howler monkey. Describe where they live in the rainforest (i.e. the canopy, understory, forest floor) and discuss their relationship with the river or watershed.
5. Make comparisons to how these four species use and live within the Maya Mountain Marine Corridor. Remind students of how their watershed is similar. What effect would erosion have on the jaguar and monkey in the Maya Mountain Marine Corridor compared to the manatee and the loggerhead at the mouth of the River?
6. Look at the Rainforest Alliance Adopt-A-Rainforest pages about Belize that discusses threats to the environmentally important Maya Mountain Marine Corridor and efforts to protect it.
7. Additional References: Nature's Green Umbrella, by Gail Gibbons

Step 3A -- Practice (Math and Learning Centers)

Challenge

Students carry out a number of comparisons to judge how muddy the water at the end of their simulated watershed is when lined with sod or just dirt.

Materials

- Simulated watershed system from Step 1
- Sod
- Dirt

Procedure

1. Using the simulated watershed system, one with sod and the other bare dirt, create a chart that gives indicators of muddiness. Have students name the various gradations and align them with the health of the water for living species, including the manatee and turtle.
2. Collect water samples from each 'watershed' after a bucket of water has been poured down. Match the samples with the chart of muddiness.
3. Annotate the samples with gradations of "healthy for land animals" or "healthy for water animals."

Step 3B -- Create (Performance Tasks Related to Standard Indicators)

Challenge

Students are challenged to research the four different species highlighted in this unit and write a story from the perspective of each one regarding the watershed and how important it is to their livelihood.

Materials

- Paper
- Art Supplies

Procedure

1. Students draw pictures of themselves using water and write one or two sentences about how important water is to their lives.
2. Students draw pictures of the different species using the water source and write one or two sentences on how important the water is to their lives.

Step 4 -- Present

Challenge

Students will each begin to compile a book called The Rainforest and Me. In this will go their maps of local place and Belize as well as the new information on water sources.

The Rainforest Alliance curriculum is unique in that it teaches science, math, language arts and social studies essentials while addressing the United States National Standards for Learning. These are the standards addressed in the second grade lessons.

Writing

Standard 3 Level 1: K - 2
1. Generates questions about topics of personal interest.
2. Uses a variety of sources to gather information.

Reading

Standard 7 Level 1 Grade K - 2
1. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts.
4. Relates new information to prior knowledge and experiences.

Listening and Speaking

Standard 8 Level 1 Grade K - 2
8. Listens and responds to a variety of media.

Thinking and Reasoning

Standard 1 Level 1 Grade K - 2
Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument.

Standard 5 Level 1 Grade K - 2
Identifies simple problems and possible solutions.

Mathematics

Standard 1
Uses a variety of strategies in the problem-solving
Level 1 Grade K - 2
A) Draws pictures to represent problems.
B) 4. Makes organized lists or tables of information necessary for solving a problem.

Standard 3 Level 1 Grade K - 2
3. Understands basic estimation strategies.

Standard 4 Level 1 Grade K - 2
1. Understands the basic measures of length, width, height, weight, and temperature.

Life Sciences

Standard 6 Level 1 Grade K - 2
1. Knows that plants and animals need certain resources for energy and growth.
2. Knows that living things are found almost everywhere in the world and that distinct environmental support the life of different types of plants and animals.

Standard 13 Level 1 Grade K - 2
Understands that in science it is helpful to work with a team and share the findings with others.

Standard 12 Level 1 Grade K - 2
1. Knows that learning can come from careful observations and simple experiments.

Standard 5 Level 1 Grade K - 2
1. Knows the basic needs of plants and animals (air, water, nutrients, light or food, shelter).
2. Knows that plants and animals have features that help them live in different environments.

Standard 4 Level 1 Grade K - 2
3. Knows that differences exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal.

Standard 7 Level 1 Grade K - 2
2. Knows that there are similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals.