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Teaching and Learning Proforma -
AUSTRALIAN RAINFORESTS

(Big idea - Children will become aware of how important rainforests are for our ecosystem)

Intended Outcomes:

Children will -
Develop and practise skills necessary to work collaboratively with others.
Develop and use speaking and listening skills appropriate to a variety of contexts.
Decode, interpret, respond to and critically analyse video text.
Collect, analyse and organise information.
Use co-operative means to bring research together in an organised manner.
Access appropriate data to support geographic research from computer, encyclopedias, etc.
Know various plants and animals of the rainforests.
Have an understanding of the geographic location of rainforests.
Understand why rain forests are endangered.
Learn why rain forests are necessary for planet ecology and ways that people can help preserve the environment.

Engaging students:

In a class group discuss:
    - Why are they called rainforests and not just forests?
    - What does 'felling' mean?
    - Why are they important to us?

Show a video about rainforests. focus on plant and animal life.

Accompany discussions with appropriate pictures.

Ask children to close their eyes and imagine the sounds whilst surrounded by damp, towering trees.

Discuss what they know about some of the famous rainforests in the world. (Focus in on Australia's best known rainforests.)

Refining (students’ questions, ideas and teacher’s intentions):

Read the poem Rainforest by Erica Fryberg, (12 years old 1986 - This can be found in Rigby's Debatable Issues page 76). Ask the children what they imagined while the poem was being read. Discuss the images the poet has created and her choice of words and phrases.

Children complete cloze and comprehension sheets on Rainforests.

Extending:

Where are the world's rainforests? -

Display a large map of the world. Ask individual children to point at random to some continents and countries.
Point out the Equator and identify the countries that lie along this imaginary line. Explain that the lands which are close to the Equator are very hot, receive a very high rainfall and have thick rainforest. Also explain that the further north or south you go from the Equator, the cooler the temperature becomes, It follows, of course, that a different type of forest will grow in these cooler climates.
Display a map showing the world's rainforests. Look at the key indicating the different types of rainforests. Discuss tropical, temperate and coniferous rainforests.

Look at a map showing Australia's rainforests. Have the children identify the different types. Discuss the following -

What states have the largest areas of rainforest?
What major towns are located near the rainforest areas?
What differences might there be between the rainforests in the north and those in the south?
does anyone know about any particular rainforest areas?

Layers of the rainforest - discuss the following terms:

EMERGENTS: giant trees that are much higher than the average canopy height. It houses many birds and insects.
CANOPY: the upper parts of the trees. This leafy environment is full of life in a tropical rainforest and includes: insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and more.
UNDERSTORY: a dark, cool environment under the leaves but over the ground.
FOREST FLOOR: Teeming with animal life, especially insects. The largest animals in the rainforest generally live here.

ART: Children create a rainforest in the classroom. Use the 'layers' to decide relative sizes for drawing and/or painting trees and plants to be included in a rainforest mural big enough to fit across the back wall of the classroom.
Divide the class into groups to make the background and the different layers of trees and vines. Use name-tags to identify flora.
Refer to pictures and information that will help them with their artwork.
Children could make creatures to add to their rainforest as they read about them.

The importance of the forest -

Discuss why forests along Australia's coastline have been cut down. guide the discussion to mention exploration and farming.
Why are trees important?
Why are leaves called laboratories?
How does a tree help us to breathe?
Why are tree roots important?
How are trees useful to animals/birds/insects/people?
Compile of list of items that have originally come from forests.

Rainforest animals -

How are animals in the rainforest unique?
In what ways are rainforests important to your survival?
Compile a list of animals found in rainforests in Australia.

Rainforest plants -

What's unique about plant life in the rainforest?
Why are tropical forests important everyone?
Explain how rainforests shelter more than half of all plant and animal species on earth. Rainforests straddle the equator in a belt called the tropics. The tropics receive more direst sun than the rest of the earth. That means more solar energy for photosynthesis - the process plants use to make food. This supports more plants, which in turn support more animals in the food chain.
Indigenous people have always found many uses for the chemical substances that rainforest plants make to repel predators and diseases or to attract animals for pollination and seed dispersal. Chemists use these compounds as the basis of insect repellents, insecticides, flavourings, dyes, other industrial raw materials and medicines.

Children will be given a plant or animal found in the rainforest and write its 'life story'. Suggest that they write about its appearance, characteristics and habitat. Children will illustrate their story.

Read the poem Bellbirds by Henry Kendall. Ask children to imagine the sights and sounds the poet is creating through his choice of words.
Ask children to paint one of the images in the poem. Tell them to add a caption indicating the phrases or lines on which their painting is based.

SCIENCE: Set up an experiment to see plants breathe (Rigby English - Debatable Issues page 95

ART: Tucki Tucki Stump Look at the painting and write a poem about the feelings of a tree as it is being cut down.

Reflecting on what we have learnt

Discuss why it is important to save our rainforests.
What arguments have been put forward by various environmentalist groups?
Various debates on controversial topics could take place.

Teaching Resources:

Rigby English Teachers Resource Book 'Debatable Issues' Upper Primary
Student Response Sheets

Fletcher, Helen Cloze in on Themes Books 1 & 3 1994 Holding Educational Aids Australia

Walters, Lynley Non-Fiction Cloze and Comprehension Activities Book 4 1993 Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd Melbourne

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