Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by introducing your students to some of the amazing natural resources found throughout Latin America. Our slideshow presentations feature six ongoing conservation initiatives; each slideshow includes a script for the teacher with additional information on each country.

Kindergarteners will understand more about the connection between rainforests and their supermarket as they learn about Colombia's Cachalú Biological Reserve. The jaguars, manatees, howler monkeys and loggerhead turtles that inhabit the mystical Mayan forests of Belize are sure to intrigue first graders. In second grade, children compare the rich culture of the indigenous Yanomami with settlers seeking a better life in Brazil's Amazon. Third and fourth grade students learn how chocolate is helping protect forests in Ecuador. Fifth and sixth graders explore El Salvador's El Imposible National Park and learn about the connection between coffee and the migratory songbirds that visit their own backyards each spring. And, seventh and eighth graders learn about the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of banana production in Honduras.

Look for more activities to teach your students about how our lives are connected to tropical forests.

Hola! I'm Chayo. My name is really Rosario, but everyone calls me Chayo. I live in Rio Negro, Colombia between the town of El Encino and Cachalú National Park in the Andes Mountains. Rio Negro is real small -- just some farms and a school. I live in a white house with my mom, dad, three brothers and six sisters. I have five brothers and seven sisters, but the older ones don't live with us. We also have two dogs, three cats and a parakeet named Felix.

My dad is a farmer. We grow mostly coffee, but we have lots of other crops -- a little corn, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, squash, plantains, potatoes, oranges, avocados, limes, bananas, pineapples, and papayas. I love papayas; they're my favorite fruit. We also have chickens, turkeys, two cows and a horse.

Read more about Chayo's Andean Home and have your students compare their lives to Chayo's life in Colombia. Ask them questions such as:

• How many more people are in Chayo's family than in your family?
• What have you noticed in the story that looks different from where you live?
• What have you noticed that looks the same?
• How far away do you think Chayo lives from us?

Read other Rainforest Alliance original stories and learn about the lives of children in Belize, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador.

Last school year, through an exciting scrapbook exchange the Rainforest Alliance education team and students from three of our partner schools in Newark, New Jersey had the opportunity to personally connect with students in Latin America. Fourth and sixth graders at Ann St., Lafayette St. and Quitman St. Community Schools exchanged scrapbooks with students from Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and Belize.

The nonprofit Creative Connections, an international cultural exchange organization, coordinated the exchange that began with a workshop for students last fall. After writing and designing scrapbook entries about their local environment and their lives in the United States, the students eagerly awaited the responses from their Latin American friends.

Read more about the exchange on our Frog Blog and watch what happened in this exciting new video.

FACES, a magazine that helps kids understand other cultures, wants to hear from students who are trying to protect the Earth. Participants must be between the ages of 9 and 16. They should send a photo of themselves with a 1 - 2 sentence description of what they do at school and at home to help the environment. Winning entries will be published in the magazine's Clean Earth issue. Deadline for submitting a photograph is October 31, 2007.

The National Gardening Association is accepting applications for their 2008 Youth Garden Grants Program. School groups and community organizations educating students about environmental awareness, nutrition, leadership or team building through garden programs are eligible to recieve $250 and $500 grants to support their program. Grants are awarded to start-up programs as well as established programs. Deadline for submitting an application is November 1, 2007.

The SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fujifilm Environmental Excellence Awards, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks, recognizes K - 12 students and teachers who are working to protect the environment on a grassroots level. Eight winning groups will receive $10,000 each to go toward the support of their projects. They will also receive a trip to an Anheuser-Busch theme park where they will attend a special awards event. One environmental educator will receive $5,000, and other prizes including an all-expense-paid trip to the 2008 National Science Teachers Association annual conference. Previously, projects have included initiatives aimed at habitat restoration, school yard beautification, energy and waste reduction, environmental education and community outreach, wildlife protection and natural resource conservation. Application deadline is November 30, 2007.

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