Welcome to the Rainforest

a toucan and elephant - love my kiddos!

Well, it has been quite the week! We have been studying habitats for awhile now. Each of the six first grade classes took a habitat to specialize in, but I must say ours was the best. We were the rainforest. The kiddos were choose an animal to learn more about and then we transformed the room into a rainforest. I used a performance assessment to assess their research, and here is how it went. The kids made their own animal costume - this was a blast, though a bit chaotic (but aren't most student-led learning experiences?) - and then we made vines and trees for the classroom.

Once we were all set, the kiddos put their costumes on and the other first grade students traveled to the rainforest, interviewing the animals that they found. The students animals were in charge of telling 2-3 facts about their animal (great oral component) and show off their picture and costume.

crocodile

orangutan

Poisonous Dart Frog

Komodo Dragon

Piranha

Toucan and Macaw

Glass-winged butterfly - yep, they do exist!

gorilla

Amazon butterfly and Morpho butterfuly

Tasier and Red-eyed green tree frog

A picture of our vines from the ceiling!

Once our classroom presented, we had the opportunity to explore the other habitats, which included the ocean, polar lands, desert, grassland, and forest. This has got to be one of my favorite moments of the year so far!

~ Katie