1. Berger, Melvin, Gilda Berger. Life in the Rainforest: Plants, Animals and the People. Nashville, Tennessee: Ideal Children's Books, 1994.
Like the title says this book discusses the different features of the rainforest in a text that 3-4 graders would be able to comprehend. The book draws comparisons for the children, so that they can relate to what the rainforest is really like.
This book is best suited for a read aloud by the teacher. This way some of the comparisons between the children's reality and that of the rainforest can be probed further. The text is best used as a read aloud, with excited comments and questions that the children would discuss.
2. Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1990.
This story tells of a huge old tree in the rainforest and when men come to chop it down. As the man with the axe takes a rest, all of the animals, one at a time, come to whisper in his ear about the reason this tree should not be cut down. The animals talk about it being their home and progress to this is the land for your children not your land, and you must save it for them. The man leaves the rainforest once he awakens.
This book is a good companion for the rainforest unit. A teacher or other adult could read this to the students. You could read this book before or during the unit to introduce children to some of the facts or to reinforce what they are already learning. Whichever way you choose to use this book would work and compliment what the children are learning.
3. Johanasen, Heather, and Sindy McKay. About the Rain Forest. San Francisco: Treasure Bay, Inc, 2000.
Like most comprehensive rainforest books, this book talks about the layers of the forest, the animals, the people, and what is happening to the rainforest. This book has a large new vocabulary but introduced in a way that will not make it that hard for the children to read.
This book would be important to have to supplement for the children who have difficulties with reading. The book has two sets of readings a parents/adults page and a child's page. This way the reading from the parents would allow the students to learn about the rainforest as well as helping them work on their reading.
4. Stone, Lynn. Plants of the Rain Forest. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Corporation, Inc, 1994.
This Lynn Stone book talks about the plants and how they interact and live in the rainforest. This book focuses on the different layers and plants in the layers and what they need to survive. This is a major part of the rainforest and an important element for the children to discuss.
The Lynn Stone books would work best in a jigsaw sharing. Separate the class into groups and have each group read one text, and then regroup the children and have them share and take notes on all of the different books then they would really get a full picture of the different aspects of the rainforest. This could take one day or two.
5. ---. Animals of the Rain Forest. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Corporation, Inc, 1994.
Animals of the Rain Forest, specifically deals with all of the different animals that live in the rainforest and how they depend upon the rainforest. The main groups of animals are discussed; frog and lizard, birds, and mammals, each find their place in this book.
This is another of the Lynn Stone books and would fit into the Jigsaw mentioned above.
6. ---. People of the Rain Forest, Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Corporation, Inc, 1994.
This Lynn Stone text deals with the people of the rainforest and all the different aspects of that relationship between forest and human. Things are discussed such as the forest as a provider, what tribal people live there and what medicines come from it. All of these are things that help complete the picture for the students.
See Plants of the Rain Forest for how to use this book in the classroom. Jigsaw
7. ---. Vanishing Rain Forest. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Corporation, Inc, 1994.
Vanishing Rain Forest, is a book that focuses on what benefits come from the rainforest, what is happening to them, and what will happen when they are being cut down. It is a short book, 24 pages and it accurately and in a text students can understand explain why cutting down the rainforest is not a wonderful thing.
See other Lynn Stone books.
Electronic Sources
8. May, Carolyn, Henry Shires, Project Managers. Imagination Express: Rain Forest. CD-ROM, Mac/Win. Washington: EdMark/Harcourt Brace, 1995.
This is a CD-ROM that allows the students to enter the rainforest and create an E-book. The program provides story ideas but it also provides facts on animals and on different aspects. This is program that the class could really get into.
It would not require a classroom set of CD-ROM to allow the students to enjoy this. You could create a class story, or small group stories. Another idea would be to copy some of the story ideas and allow the students to write their own individual stories about the rainforest and its animals.
9. Living Eden, The&endash;Manu, Peru's Hidden Rain Forest. Home Page. 26 April. 2002 http://www.pbs.org/edens/manu/
This is a website that deals specifically with a hidden rain forest in Peru. The website talks about all of the different animals and different aspects of this rainforest. It also talks about why it is hidden and why it is described as an Eden. The website is set up in an easy to use style that the children could use on their own.
This would be a good extension for one or multiple gifted children in the class. Those that finished early with the activities some of the days could look up this internet site and learn about this interesting rain forest and share about it to the class.
10. Rainforest Action Network Kid's Corner, Home Page. 26 April. 2001 http://www.ran.org/kids_action/
This is a fun website full of activities and things the children can do to help the rainforest. This is really generated at what kids can do to help and make a difference. It is also informational. It talks about some animals and plants but that is not the focus.
This would be a good teacher resource and help the teacher with ideas or things that the children can do in class as extensions to the unit.