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The Rainforest
Grade 4
Amy Richards
and
Emily Haggerty
How does the Rainforest
benefit humans?
Learning Outcomes:
Chapter 1: Students will be able to explain the climate and characteristics of a
rainforest, and be able to identify the different levels of the strata. They should be
able to list some animals found in the Rainforest.
Chapter 2: Students should be able to list benefits of the rainforest, as well as
explain how those benefits affect their life.
Chapter 3: Students will be able to explain what deforestation is and why it
occurs. They will be able to see how deforestation directly may affect them and
be able to brainstorm ideas they can do in their daily lives to help save the
rainforests. Students will be able to describe the relationship between
deforestation and global warming.
Introduction: Welcome to the Rainforest 2
Chapter 1: Inside the Rainforest
3
Chapter 2: Benefits of the Rainforest
15
Chapter 3: Deforestation
21
Glossary
35
References
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1
Have you ever wondered where some of
our greatest resources have come from?
Medicines, chocolate, and many other
products that we enjoy have come from the
oldest ecosystem on Earth, the Rainforest!
Though this beautiful environment only
covers a small portion of our Earth, the
benefits that come from it are abundant.
Tall trees, rich soil, and plenty of rain have
provided the perfect habitat for many plants
and animals, many of which play a key role
in balancing out this environment.
Disruptions to the ecosystem can be
detrimental to the inhabitants of the
rainforest as well as the people around the
world who rely on the goods they receive
from the Rainforest.
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Climate
A tropical rainforest is a wooded area full of tall
trees. These are warm, humid, wet places found
near the equator. A rainforest can get more than
200 inches of rain every year and the average
temperature is 77°F.
Learning Target: Students will be able to
explain the climate and characteristics of a
rainforest, and be able to identify the different
levels of the strata. They should be able to list
some animals found in the Rainforest.
Guiding Questions:
1. Describe the climate in the rainforest,
and explain why you would or would not
want to live there.
1. For each of the four levels of the strata,
identify an animal that would live there.
1. Why do you think rainforests thrive near
the equator? (Hint: Use the definition of
equator to help)
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Location
The largest rainforests are found in
Central America, South America, Central
Africa, and Southeast Asia. As you can
see in the picture below, all of the
Rainforests are found near the equator.
Some of the best-known rainforests like
the Amazon and Congo are actually
located on the Equator where the
temperatures and rainfall are high all year
round.
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The Amazon
The Amazon jungle is the world's
largest tropical rainforest. The forest
covers the basin of the Amazon, the
world's second longest river.
The Amazon is home to the greatest
variety of plants and animals on Earth.
20% of all the world's plants and birds
and about and about 10% of all mammal
species are found there. In the Amazon
you can find over 2.5 million different
species of insects and over 40,000 plant
species!
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The Layers
Africa
Central Africa holds the world's second
largest rainforest. To the southeast, the large
island of Madagascar was once intensively
forested, but now much of it is gone.
Africa contains areas of high cloud
forest, mangrove swamps and flooded
forests. The island of Madagascar is home to
many unique plants and animals that cannot
be found anywhere else.
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A rainforest is really four layers of plants
stacked one atop another. These are known as
strata (zones). Starting at the top, the strata
are:
●
●
EMERGENTS: Giant trees that are much
higher than the average canopy height
and much windier. This is typically 250
feet high or more. It houses many birds
and tribes of agile monkeys.
CANOPY: The upper parts of the trees;
made up of thick branches and leaves of
taller trees. This leafy environment is full
of life in a tropical rainforest and includes:
insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and
more. There is a refreshing breeze up
here with sunlight, creating this to be the
most popular place to live in the jungle.
Due to the height of the trees, the canopy
stops most rain from reaching the forest
below.
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●
●
UNDERSTORY: A dark, hot
environment under the leaves but
over the ground. Plants grow here
and trees will grow tall quickly;
some vines grow to a half mile in
length. There are leafy bushes
and the tops of small trees here.
FOREST FLOOR: The floor
swarms with different insects,
worms, land snails, frogs, toads,
snakes, birds and small rodents.
The largest animals (like
jaguars)in the rainforest also
generally live here.
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The Rainforest is home to many
species of both plants and animals. Though the
Rainforest only covers about 2% of our Earth, it
is where about half of the world’s animal
species lives. Plants and animals found in the
rainforest have had invaluable benefits to
people around the world. The abundant trees
have provided the world with fresh oxygen,
fruits, nuts, goods, medicines, and lumber.
Flowering plants, vines, trees,
bushes, and carnivorous plants cover the
Rainforest. One of the most fascinating plants
in the Rainforest is the Venus Fly Trap. The
Venus Fly Trap is known to actually eat insects,
by trapping them in their mouth-like closure.
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Water Animals
You may think that the Rainforest
is only trees, plants, and animals
roaming. Because of the great amount
of rainfall, and the surrounding rivers, a
large portion of the Rainforest is home
to water animals. We know mostly
about Amazonian animals like piranhas,
but there are many others in the water.
Electric eels are one animal
that roam the waters in the Amazon,
and to much surprise you can also find
dolphins!
Did you know that there is actually a
pink dolphin in the Amazon waters?
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Floor
Animals
Animals we are more familiar with when we
think of the Rainforest, are the floor-dwelling
animals. These are all of the jungle cats,
snakes, insects, and other mammals. These
animals are important to the environment and
food cycle in the Rainforest. Want to learn
about some more closely? ...
Click HERE for a
Virtual Rainforest
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The Big Top
The big top covers all of the animals
in the tops of the trees, seeing the
Rainforest from the best view. These
are the animals like the exotic birds,
three-toed sloths, monkeys, and
some insects. These animals all play
their own role in the Rainforest and
enjoy the fruits and other foods
straight from the trees.
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Activity:
Click HERE to pretend you are an explorer
in the Rainforest! Research the animals
you would find in each area, and answer
the questions found at the beginning of the
exploration! Bon Voyage!
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Rainforests help to clean the world’s
air and water. There is more to forests than
just a massive collection of trees. It is a
natural, complex ecosystem, made up of a
wide variety of trees, that support a
massive range of life forms.
Learning Target: Students should be
able to list benefits of the rainforest, as
well as explain how those benefits
affect their life.
Guided Questions:
1. List five products that you use that
you think came from the Rainforest.
1. What do you think is the most
important resource that we have from
the Rainforest? Why?
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Habitat & Ecosystems
Rainforests serve as a habitat to
millions of animals. Animals form part of
the food chain in the forests and all of
these different plants and animals are
called biodiversity. An ecosystem is the
interaction between one another with their
physical environment. The healthier
ecosystems can recover and withstand a
variety of disasters such as floods and
wildfires.
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Climate Control
Rainforests are extremely significant to
the world’s climate and to the health of our
environment. Trees and other plants in the
rainforests retain billions of tons of carbon in
their trunks, stems, and leaves.Trees cleanse
our atmosphere by absorbing the carbon
dioxide that we exhale and provide the
oxygen that we need to breath.
It is believed that the Amazonian forests
alone store over half of the Earth's rainwater!
Rainforest trees draw water from the forest
floor and release it back into the atmosphere
in the form of swirling mists and clouds.
Rainforests are constantly recycling huge
quantities of water by feeding the rivers and
without this, droughts would become more
common.
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Food
About 80% of all of the developed world's
food originally came from the rainforests.
Fruits like avocado, coconuts, oranges,
lemons, grapefruits, bananas, pineapples,
mangoes and tomatoes can all be found in
the world’s rainforests. Also, there are many
vegetables such as: maize or sweetcorn,
potatoes, and winter squash. Nuts such as
Brazil, cashew and macadamia originated
from the rainforests along with spices such
as vanilla, ginger and cinnamon. People rely
on rainforests as the source of many
products and without the rainforests we will
be directly affected as well.
Medicine
Not only do our rainforests provide food, but
they are also a wonderful pharmacy. One
hundred and twenty one prescription drugs,
medicines that can make us feel better, come
from plant-derived sources. Ginger is also
used to treat indigestion and colds which is
found from the rainforest.
Do your parents love
coffee? Tell them to
thank the Rainforest for
coffee beans!
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….Did you know?
More than 20% of the world's oxygen is
produced in the Amazon Rainforest. This has
earned the area the name The Lungs of The
Planet.
The Amazon Basin holds one-fifth of the
world's fresh water.
More than half the world's approximately 10
million species of plants, animals and insects
live in the tropical rainforests.
Rainforests once covered an estimated 14%
of the earth's surface. They now cover less
than 6%. At current rates of loss, the
rainforests will be completely gone in forty
years.
Currently, over 120 drugs come from plantderived sources. Of the 3000 plants identified
by the US National Cancer Institute as active
against cancer cells, 70% come from
rainforests.
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Rainforests are extremely important because
the water they produce is evaporated and then
used as rain in other areas.
At least 3,000 fruits are found in the rainforests.
The number of species of fish in the Amazon
exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic
Ocean.
The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so
immense that less than 1 percent of its millions
of species have been studied by scientists for
their active constituents and their possible uses
So, when one acre of the rainforest is destroyed
the loss is HUGE!
Activity:
Imagine a future scenario, in 500 years,
in which the world has regained most of its
forests. What happened? How and why did the
forests regrow? Write a one-page story.
Describe the forests in the present tense.
Describe what happened in the past tense.
What are the benefits of having these forests
around? How is it helpful to people?
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What is deforestation?
Learning Target: Students will be able to
explain what deforestation is and why it occurs.
They will be able to see how deforestation directly
may affect them and be able to brainstorm ideas
they can do in their daily lives to help save the
rainforests. Students will be able to describe the
relationship between deforestation and global
warming.
Guided Questions:
1. What is the leading cause of
Deforestation?
2. List one way how deforestation may
directly impact you.
3. What are scientists determining will
happen to rainforests in the future?
What evidence backs this up.
4. What are the negative
consequences of deforestation? For
people? For animals? For the
environment?
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Deforestation is when humans remove or
clear large areas of forest lands and related
ecosystems for non-forest use. These include
clearing for farming purposes, ranching and
urban use. In these cases, trees are never replanted.
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What can we do?
Causes
The leading cause of deforestation is
agriculture. There are however, several other
reasons, for example, to be used, sold or
exported as timber, wood or fuel (logging).
People also want to create more space for
human settlement and urbanization (these
include making space for shelter, industries
and roads).
“Rainforests used to cover 14% of the Earth,
and now we only have 6% left. Every second,
a section the size of a football field is cut
down. Scientists estimate that in about 40
years, the 6% will be gone as well. In
rainforests, the most valuable asset to people
is the amount of wood. In time, the impacts of
deforestation will become obvious.”
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Deforestation doesn’t happen overnight; this
is a slow process that slowly kills the forests.
It is significant to be aware that small
actions make a big difference. If everyone
made a small change in their daily lives, the
impact may be huge. There are many
different actions we can do in our daily lives.
➢ 3R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
➢ Eat organic foods- many pesticides
and insecticides kill off the insects that
need nutrients as well.
➢ Avoid jewelry that has been mined.
➢ Turn off lights, television, turn down
heat, and unplug chargers when you
are not home. Saving electricity is very
important and very easy to do!
➢ Save water by taking shorter baths
and showers.
➢ At the grocery store, bring a reusable
bag instead of the plastic bags.
➢ Make a conscious decision to share
this information with friends :)
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Impacts
There are environmental and social impacts:
★ Environmental:
❏ Extinction- The rainforest is home to
many species; cutting down the
rainforests will only result in losing
species.Up to 28,000 species are
expected to become extinct by the next
quarter of the century due to
deforestation.
❏ Habitat Loss- Organisms are losing their
homes through deforestation which will
cause them to disappear.
❏ Soil erosion- Deforestation is removing
the plants which will result in rain washing
away the nutrients in the soil.
❏ Climate Change- Deforestation will result
in a hot and dry temperature which will
create hazard to the native species.
Increase in global warming may also
occur.
❏ Pollution-The ground, air, and water
become polluted from the mining.
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★ Social:
❏ Medicine- Many of the medicines
that are used today come from the
rainforests. By destroying the
plants of the region, humans lose
potential medicines that may help
to cure diseases. There are more
than 121 natural remedies in the
rain forest which can be used as
medicines.
❏ Many indigenous people live in
rainforests. When they lose their
homes due to deforestation, much
culture goes with them as well.
Deforestation hurts them because
their natural resources for their
way of life are taken away.
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Deforestation
The rainforest is slowing disintegrating,
Getting chopped down for our needs,
And whilst we are all debating,
We need to plant more seeds.
Think about it:
So when we cut down the trees,
We should help the animals around,
What you need to plant is an extra three,
For when that tree hits the ground.
They help us with medicines, when we are ill,
However we still chop them to the ground,
Think about all those poor creatures we kill,
Petrifying them with the sound.
Provide homes for people that live there,
Or make things around the house,
From tables to even the kitchen chair,
But this can kill cats to even a mouse.
And there are many things that we can do,
Not just sit there and let it materialize,
We CAN save those animals to,
And to the World we have to open our eyes.
The rainforest is slowing disintegrating,
Getting chopped down for ALL our needs,
And whilst we are all debating,
We Have To Stop These Bad Deeds!
●
●
●
Decode this poem and explain it in your own
terms.
Take out key ideas and create a diagram of
what we can do to help the rainforests.
Create a new poem about the benefits of the
forest and why it is significant to not cut the
trees down.
By Sian Mein
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Global warming is the term used to describe a
gradual increase in the average temperature of
the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a
change that is believed to be permanently
changing the Earth's climate.
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Deforestation is one of the causes
of global warming. When you deplete
the rainforest, you are getting rid of the
trees that inhabit the forest. These trees
are what help stabilize the world’s
climate by absorbing carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere. Excess carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to
contribute to climate change through
global warming. This climate change
then cycles back to harming the
Rainforests’ ecosystem.
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How Does This Affect the
Rainforest?
How Does This Affect
People?
The Rainforest is no stranger to hot
temperatures being so close to the equator, but
the biggest problem for the Rainforest is
change. Any change in an ecosystem can
cause various problems.
You may think that the depletion of the
Rainforest has no affect on you, right?! Wrong. As
seen in the previous chapter, the Rainforest
provides people with food, medicines, and other
beneficial resources. Not only does it provide us
with tangible goods, but it also provides us with
the greatest resource of them all- fresh oxygen.
The depletion of the Rainforest due to
deforestation is problematic and detrimental to the
Earth and our survival.
One of the problems caused by global warming
is the affects it has on the plants and animals.
Plants and animals that are used to a certain
climate could perish from a change in the
temperature. Plants and animals that are able
to adapt may be able to live with the changes
caused by global warming.
Another problem that is a result of global
warming is decreased rainfall. Temperature is a
major factor in the amount of rainfall an
environment might have. In a habitat like the
rainforest, rainfall is extremely important. Plants
rely on the constant rainfall in the Rainforest.
Without it, plants are forced to either adapt or
die.
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Act Like a Scientist
What you need:
Assorted sun-loving plants
Flower box
Water
As a class, create your own “Rainforest”
with your assorted plants. You will give them
plenty of water and sunlight, like they receive in
the Rainforest. After a week, your “Rainforest” is
affected by global warming, which causes an
increase in temperature, and a decrease in
Rainfall. You can stop giving your flowers water
but still give them sunlight.
1. What will happen if you stop giving your
“Rainforest” water?
2. Use your research to think about how
global warming affects plants.
3. Construct a hypothesis about what you
think will happen to your “Rainforest” over
time without the water.
4. Collect data daily from observations of
your “Rainforest”
5. Analyze your data and draw a conclusion
6. Report your results. Was your hypothesis
correct?
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Culminating Activity
Write a persuasive letter to the
construction workers in the Rainforest,
explaining to them why they can’t cut
down the trees in the rainforest.
Things you can include:
●
What you love about the Rainforest.
●
How the Rainforest filters our air.
●
The affects on people if there were no
longer a Rainforest.
●
Ways that they can help instead.
●
Why they should listen to your
persuasive letter.
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Forest Floor- The base of the forest; the soil, plants,
and animals that inhabit the bottom layer of the forest
Canopy Layer- The upper parts of the trees; made
up of thick branches and leaves of taller trees. This
layer catches most water and is a roof to the
remaining two layers.
Deciduous forest- a type of forest characterized by
trees that seasonally shed their leaves
deforestation- the cutting down and removal of all or
most of the trees in a forested area
ecosystem- a system formed by the interaction of a
community of organisms with their environment
Emergents Layer- The tallest trees are the
emergents, towering as much as 250 feet above the
forest floor with trunks that measure up to 16 feet
around. Most of these trees are broad-leaved,
hardwood evergreens. Sunlight is plentiful up here.
Equator- an imaginary line drawn around the earth
equally distant from both poles, dividing the earth
into northern and southern hemispheres
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Global warming- a gradual increase in the average
temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans,
a change that is believed to be permanently changing
the Earth's climate.
habitat- the natural environment of an organism;
place that is natural for the life and growth of an
organism
Rain forest- a tropical forest, usually of tall, denselygrowing, broad-leaved evergreen trees in an area of
high annual rainfall
strata- layers
Temperate- moderate in respect to temperature; not
subject to prolonged extremes of hot or cold weather
Understory Layer- The part of a forest with a dark,
hot environment under the leaves but over the ground.
Plants grow here and trees will grow tall quickly; some
vines grow to a half mile in length. There are leafy
bushes and the tops of small trees here.
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Greenwood, Elinor. Rain Forest. DK Pub.,
2013. Print.
Katz, Susan. Looking for Jaguar and Other
Rainforest Poems. Greenwillow, 2005. Print.
PBS. PBS. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/bigto
p.html>.
Seymour, Simon. Tropical Rainforests.
HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. Print.
"Zoom Rainforest - Enchanted Learning
Software." Zoom Rainforest - Enchanted
Learning Software. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/r
ainforest/>.
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