Fern Gully The Last Rainforest

• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
• Rated: G
• Run time: 76 minutes

This is a magical movie about the Rain forest.  Students are able to have fun while also learning about everything that is harmed when the Rain forest is harmed.  A lumber jack is shrunk by a fairies magical powers and is not able to return to his magical size.  When he is the same size as the fairy and all of the other animals he is able to see all of the destruction that the lumber jacks are causing. 

Teachers can use this as an extension to a Rainforest lesson.

If I Ran the Rain Forest

• Ages: 5-8
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Author: Bonnie Worth 
• Illustrator: Aristides Ruiz

Fiction:

This book is from the Cat in the Hat learning library.  Many kids enjoy Cat and the Hat books. The Cat in the Hat takes a journey through the rainforest.  There is a glossary in the back of the book that gives children clues about reading.  There is also a page that gives examples of further reading.  One book that I really liked was Amazon Fever which is recomended for grades 2 and up.  

In the classroom children are able to talk about rhyming.  They can find all of the rhyming words in the book and even make up their own rhyme about the rainforest.  Teachers can also connect other Cat in the Hat books to different subject they are learning in the classroom at the time. 

Who Grows Up in the Rain Forest?

• Ages: 7-9
• Publisher: Picture Window Books
• Author: Theresa Longenecker 
• Illustrator: Melisssa Carpenter

Illustrated:
This book talks about all of the baby animals that grow up in the Rain forest. The book describes animals that grow up with their parents and others that grow up on their own. All of the animals in the Rainforest have different types of families. Some of the baby animals talked about in the book are a chick, baby gibbon, and a cub. There are also did you know sections in the book that describe facts about the differnt animals.


Teachers can talk about how animlas grow up and the ways that they are born during a science lesson. Teachers can also incorperate their own students into the lesson. A teacher can talk about how everyones home life is different and how children have different types of families.

A lesson plan I found talks about different types of families.  A book that goes along with this lesson is All Kinds of Families.  A teacher can read these books simultaneously and talk about animal families and their students families. 

Save My Rainforest

• Ages 8-12
• Publisher: Volcano Press, Incorporated
• Author: Monica Zac
• Illustrator: Bengt-Arne Runnerstrom

Fiction: 

This book is a story about a boy named Omar Castillo.  Omar is sad when he finds out that the rain forest in Mexico is being destroyed and people are selling animals from the rainforest as pets.  Children can take a journey with Omar and see how he tries to save the rain forest.  At the end of the story Omar gets to talk to the president about the deforestation of the rain forest.  The president romises Omar that in one year the rain forest cutting will stop and no one will be allowed to capture the rainforest birds and animals to sell them as pets.  Omar does not want to stop until the rain forest is saved. 

In the classroom you can talk about all of the animlas that are harmed when people cut down trees in the rain forest and get rid of the land.  As a class you can raise money and save an acre of land in the rain forest.   The Nature Conservancy allows anyone to do this. Another great site that allows children to adopt an animal or a rain forest tree is Kids Saving the Rainforest. Doing this would teach kids that they could make a difference and they could learn about how to earn and spend money. 

Over in the Jungle A Rainforest Rhyme

• Ages 3-7
• Publisher: Dawn Publications
• Author: Marianne Berkes 
• Illustrator: Jeanette Canyon

Illustrated 

Over in the Jungle A Rainforest Rhyme is great for young kids! The book is based off of the 19th century song "Over in the Medow".  This childrens book starts off in the rainforest where the reader meets a marmoset.  On each page the reader will meet a new animal counting each time.  The last page ends in the den of ten monkeys.  The illistrations in this book are un like any other.  All of the animlas are made from polymer clay and then photographed.  In the back of the book the layout switches and the chilren can veiw the rainforest from top to bottom and find all of the animals they have met along the way.  The book also includes a Song Over in the Jungle.  There is also a spot in the book to learn more information about each animal.  

This is an example of the Polymer Clay animals

              






In the classroom teachers can have students make up their own rhyme or song about animals in the rainforest.  The children would have to do their research so that they know what each animal is what the animal looks like and where they life in the rainforest.  A teacher can also integrate music into this lesson by talking about rythem in music and how the book is based off of a song.  If a teacher also wants to integrate art into a lesson with this book, chilren could make their own animals out of clay. 

A Rainforest Food Chain

Ages: 10-12
Publisher: Creative Education (July 2008)
Author: A.D Tarbo

Non Fiction


This book includes many important vocabulary word that should be learned such as adaptation, producer, and consume.  In the back of the book there is an index and a glossary that can be used to find a word or explain a definition if a child needs one.  Many animals are described in this book, children learn what they eat and how the food chain works.  Each vocabulary word in the book is underlined in green so that it can be easily found in the back of the book.

This book can be used in the classroom during many science lessons.  It can help students apply vocabulary words such as producer and consumer to a real life situation. A teacher could also use this book during a spelling lesson by taking words from the book and integrating a science and english lesson together.

The Vanishing Rainforest

• Ages: 7-10
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books
• Author: Richard Platt
• Illustrator: Rupert van Wyk's 
  
  
  Fiction
  In this children's book the Brazilian Rain forest is vanishing.  The books focus's on a girl names Ramaema.  On her walk home one day she hears the sound of the nabe.  The nabe were the white people who were taking away the forest she lived in.  The reader finds out if there is a soulution that can be made and if Ramaema's home will be saved.  Children will love the whimsical illistrartions that are done in acrylics.  

In the classroom a teacher can use this book during a history lesson.  The class can talk about other times in history in which others take over the land where people were already living. During the Indian Removal Act, in the 19th century, Andrew Jackson forced many Indians off of their land and out of their homes.  Children could learn how to use a Ven Diagram to compare the two times in history by finding a book about the trail of tears and reading both in class. 

King Fisher Voyages Rain Forest

• Ages: 8-10
• Publisher: Kingfisher Books (2006)
• Author: Jinny Johnson and Dr. Nalini Nadkarni

Non-Fiction

Scientist Nalini Nadkarni takes the reader on a journey of the Rain Forest.   There are three sections of the book.  Into the Forest is the first section which describes life on the ground and exloring rivers like the Amazon.  In the next section Up in the Air, conveys animal life off of the ground.  One section children will enjoy is a section that opens up to show a tree with different animals and where they live.  The last section of the book, Life at the Top tells the reader about the tallest trees in the Rain Forest.  

In the classroom it would be fun to have the children make a flip book with the different sections in the book.  They can then write what they find in each section of the book wether it be animals or tribes that once lived in the Rain Forest.  Throught the flip book they can also draw or print out pictures to place on the pages. 

Learn and Discover In The Rainforest

• Ages 8-10
• Publisher: Leopard Learning (2009)
• Author: Penny Dowdy
• Art Director: Sumit Charles
• Image Researcher: Poulomi Basu 

                                                        Non Fiction:

This book gives facts about the Rainforest and the different animals that live in it.  Some of the animals discussed in the book are Apes, Bats, Lizards, and Frogs.  Each page describes the different types of animals in that family and then states an interesting fact. The realistic photos will keep readers interested.  There is a glossary in the back for readers that may not understad some of the vocabulary words.  Additional websites about the rainforest are also given.  A great webiste mentined was Rainforest Education. At this website a teacher can have students look at photgraphs, solve a puzzle, or learn about different cultures living near a Rainforest. 

The Rainforest Grew All Around

Google Images

•  Ages 5-8
• Publisher: Sylvan Dell Publishing (2007)
• Author: Susuan K. Mitchell
• Illustrator: Connie McLennan 

Illustrated: 

This book is based off of the children's rhyme the "Green Grass Grew All Around"  In the book children will learn about different animals and plants living in the Amazon rainforest.  There are fun facts about the different animal and plants on the sides of each page. In the back of the book there is a recipe for how to make rainforset cookies.  These cookies use ingredients that you could find in the rainforest. 

As a teacher you could use this book during an English lesson when talking about poetry. Teachers can also use this book during a science lesson.  Students can classify animals and or sort them by their different attributes.  If you use the cookie recipe in the back you can do a math lesson on measurement. 

Rational

This text set is intended for elementary teachers 1^st through 5^th grade.  If you are studying the Rainforest in your classroom and need a book about this topic you can find many great books to use here! The Rainforest is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.  In my 5^th grade classroom we studied the Rainforest and saved enough money to save an acre of land in the Rainforest.  Today, an acre of Rainforest is destroyed every second! You can bring the beauty of the Rainforest to life in your classroom and share all about the animal life and different science topics related to this ecosystem.