This month, we've decided to take a second grade trip to the rainforest. Katie Grace enjoys science, but since we do science all together, she doesn't always get a chance to pursue her own interests. She's been wanting to learn more about the rainforest since Vacation Church School this summer, when they all went on a rainforest adventure!
In math, we're working on place value, and adding/subtracting 3 digit numbers, including borrowing and regrouping. It's hard to work all of that into a rainforest unit, but one thing we're doing is making a "place value vine." Today, she colored 10 pieces of paper green. We then cut out leaf shapes, and she labeled them, counting on by 100. We strung them on a green ribbon and hung them up.
The plan is to add flowers in between the leaves for 10s, and then bugs between the flowers for 5s. More pictures to come!
We're also planning to go on a
Treasures of the Amazon web quest.
Some books we'll be looking at include:
Crafts for Kids Who Are Wild About the Rainforest by Kathy Ross
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
Welcome to the Green House by Jane Yolan
Nature's Green Umbrella by Gail Gibbons
The Umbrella by Jan Brett
Rainforest from DK Publishing
Rainforest Wildlife by Usborne
"From the heart" stories include:
Peeps at Many Lands: A Journey on the AmazonThe Rainforest Alliance also has some good resources, including an original story. The
Rainforest Action Network is another site that advocates for saving the rainforest.
This site has some fun activities as well. We're going to create the
Amazon ABC mural.
Using care2, you can send
endangered wildlife ecards to loved ones-- a fun way to keep Daddy in the loop!
And if this doesn't keep us busy,
here's a whole other page of resources!
Then we added flowers for the tens. We were going to add bugs for the fives, but that seemed very labor intensive.
Now we're drawing/coloring pictures on rainforest animals, and she's practicing writing her number words. She's also writing a page about each animal and drawing a picture.
