Lessson Plans for Grade & Middle School

Lesson Plans for

Grade & Middle School

Grades 4 and Up

Rainforest Animal Appreciation day!

(or non-human animal appreciation day)

Here is a lesson plan for grades 4 and up on animals in the rainforest. This focuses on social, emotional, experiential and compassionate learning which is important in understanding ecosystems, and our connection to the earth and other creatures.

Materials needed: some research, journal or paper, writing utensil, coloring materials if you want to draw pictures.

1. Research!

Teachers and students can find info on animals in the rainforest at national geographic kids (this page is focused on the rainforest habitat, make sure to scroll down to the animals section) and on this site which covers animal facts.

2. Focus on one!

Have kids pick their favorite rainforest animals (depending on the grade, you may choose to use the phrasing “non-human animal” as this works to better appreciate their connection to us “human animals”)

3. Write about your experience!

Have them write a journal entry as if they were that animal living in the rainforest for a day. What makes them well suited to live in the rainforest? How might they feel out the rainforest?

4. Share what you learned!

Kids can present their entries to the class. (this can be as elaborate as you’d like) or they can pair off and share with another classmate.

5. Draw!

Students can then draw this animal in their natural habitat and hang them around the room. Building the concept of appreciating animals, while knowing they are not ours to take out of their natural habitats.

Lesson ideas for connecting kids

ages 6 and up with nature

Grades 1-5

Relate nature learning to everyday life. Read or watch The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and ask the students to think about a time they’ve played in a tree, or played around trees, how do they imagine the tree feeling? Let it be fun, engaging, self paced, and open ended inquiry. Allowing for kids to follow their own questions and think about the living experience of the tree. Then, introduce new information regarding different kinds of trees and where they grow. Use the tree handouts.

Middle school

Use role models, identify folks who have worked at conserving nature, have students make a celebratory project about that person and what they’ve done.

Grades 1-8

Plant a tree! Tend to it as a group. Learn about the different parts of the tree and what they do, how do they work together? If that’s not possible, interact with a tree outside, as a group, or individually. Write a story about a tree you met on a walk. Keep an ‘outdoor journal’ where students write about one thing they saw in nature a week. Let them share journal entries if they like. Or make it a collective journal, reinforcing the sense of community.

COOL TREE FACT

The Tree That Owns Itself, located at the corner of S Finley St and Dearing St in Athens, Georgia is a white oak tree presumed to have legal ownership of itself and the area around its base. In 1832, Colonel William Jackson is said to have deeded the oak its own land, and in 1946, after the original tree had died, a new oak, planted with the acorn of the previous, was dedicated in the same plot.