Unit Plan: The Rainforest

1. Unit Plan:The Rainforest Professor Carmack EDRL 451A Kelley Halford

2. Overview • This is a three week unit plan about the rainforest. The topic area is social studies, but with an emphasis on the reading and language arts standards. The students will learn about what the rainforest is, where it is located, what animals live there, what plants grow there and what food is grown there that we use here at home. They will also learn why it is so important to save the rainforest. • This unit is for a kindergarten class of 27 students, 12 boys and 15 girls. Seven students are Limited English Proficient (LEP) and one student has a IEP for speech. There is also one student that is being evaluated for ADD. IEP student will be pulled out for speech twice a week.

3. Unit Goals • Students will learn about the location of the rainforest and why it is so important. • Students will learn about the many levels of the rainforest and what/who lives there. • Students will learn about the different animals that live in the rainforest. • Students will learn about the different plants and trees that live in the rainforest. • Students will learn the meaning of the word extinct as well as experience what that word means, in their own classroom.

4. Rationale • There are many plants in the rainforests that have not yet been discovered. There may be rainforest plants that could help cure many serious diseases. Many rainforest plants are already used in medicine. • Rainforests occupy about 7 percent of the world's surface, yet are home to about half of all plant and animal species on earth. They have been home to some cultures for many thousands of years. They are unique and beautiful places. The rainforest, even though so far away, effects us and our daily lives, with the medicines we take, the food we eat and the air we breathe.

5. Materials • Construction paper • Lined paper (journals) • Fruit loops • Scissors • Glue • crayons • Butcher paper • Markers • Lyrics for “Layers of the Rainforest” song • Elmo & projector • “Rainforest” by Helen Cowcher • Pre-written papers with names of layers of Rainforest • “The Great Kapok Tree” by Lynne Cherry • Great Kapok tree Template • Pictures of flowers and plants from the rainforest • “Welcome to the Rainforest” by Jane Yolen • Sloth Template • “Natures Green Umbrellas” by Gail Gibbons • “Flashy Fantastic Rainforest Frogs” Dorothy Hinshaw Patent • Pictures of the Red-eyed Tree Frog • Frog template • “Hide and Snake” by Steve Baker • Pictures of boas and other snakes • Toucan template • “A Walk in the Rainforest” by Kristin Joy Pratt • Pictures of macaws • Macaw worksheet (to color) • “Rainforest” Scott Lewis • Blue Morpho butterfly pattern • “A Day in the Jungle” by Jon George • Picture of banana tree • Picture of gorillas • Card stock • String • “Life in the Rainforest” by Lucy Baker • Rainforest snacks • Toilet paper rolls (two for each student) • Border (for Safari hats) • “Where the Forest Meets the Sea” by Jeannie Baker • “For the Love of the Earth” P.K.Hallinan

6. Instructional Strategies • Reading: • KWL • Reading Comprehension • Visualizing • Drawing • Predictions • Writing: • Journals • Vocabulary: • Drawing a picture • Writing a sentence • Writing vocabulary words in journals • Study/Test Prep • Vocabulary review • Questioning • Oral Review • Access Prior Knowledge • KWL • Asking questions • Link to Real World • Teacher will read the books to the class. Then the teacher will show pictures of the animals, trees or plants. At the end of the lesson they will write a class letter to the President of the U.S. asking him to save the rainforest. • Encouraging Students to Read • The teacher will leave the books out for the students to look through and read during centers, or when they are done with an assignment or project • The teacher will let the students decide what books to read as the unit progresses.

7. Standards • RL.K.1 - With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. • RL.K.2 - With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. • RL.K.3 - With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. • RL.K.4 - Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. • RL.K.7 - With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts). • RL.K.10 - Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. • RI.K.5 - Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book. • RF.K.1 - Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. • RF.K.1a - Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page. • RF.K.1b - Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. • RF.K.1c - Understand that words are separated by spaces in print. • W.K.2 - Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. • W.K.8 - With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. • SL.K.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. • SL.K.1a - Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion). • SL.K.1b - Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. • SL.K.2 - Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood. • SL.K.5 - Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail. • SL.K.6 - Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

8. Assessments • Assessments will be done daily. • The projects will be a major part of the assessments. • The journals and other writing will serve as assessments as well. • There will be oral assessments, using the vocabulary words learned that day. • Oral assessments will also cover the content taught during that day. • Teacher will monitor student behavior and participation as an informal assessment.

9. Resources • Lesson plan obtained from: • http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ssmdrainforestunitk-htm on November 27th, 2011. • Rubric was created on Microsoft Word. • Templates for projects were obtained from: • http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/jungleanimals.html on December 11th, 2011. • http://www.edhelper.com/clipart/teachers/coloring-rainforest.pdf on December 4th, 2011.

10. How This Unit Addresses Class Population • This unit is designed for a kindergarten classroom. The assessments are based on the projects that are created each day. The assessments focus on the perfomance of the students and the completion of the projects. The speech student is pulled out once a week for speech. The student with ADD has many different places around the room where he can go to work. The ELL students will be assisted when needed, and any questions or directions will be translated to them, from Spanish to English, by the teacher. This is a unit plan for a Title 1 school, to give them exposure to a place, the rainforest, that they may not have been introduced to, anywhere else. Many of the activities are done whole group, to accommodate the large class size. Most of the assessments are done whole group, or orally, to accommodate the large class size, and also to accommodate the different levels of understanding and ability.

11. Evidence of Strategy Use • Accessing Prior Knowledge: • KWL chart-used in lesson 1, also revisited through out the lessons, and completed on Day 15 (in the short form lesson plans) • Reading Strategy: • Asking questions– after books are read, the teacher asks questions to the class about the Jaguars from the book “The Beast” on Day 6. • Vocabulary Strategy: • Drawing a picture in their journals about their favorite animal that they saw on the safari. (Day 14 of short form lesson plans) • Writing Strategy: • Writing in journals-this strategy is used almost daily in the lesson plans. • Study/Test prep: • Oral review: The teacher will review the animals that the students have learned about on Day 13. Then the students will choose one animal that they have learned about and go back to their desks and write about it in their journals, and draw a picture. On Day 14, the students and teacher will go on a “Classroom Safari” to review all of the animals, trees and food they have learned about in the rainforest. • Link Content to Real World: The teacher will use pictures of real animals and trees, to link the concepts from the books, to the real world. The teacher will also make the word/concept of “extinction” come to life in the classroom on Day 15 with the removal of one animal each hour, until they are all gone. • Encourage Reading for Pleasure: • Students will be able to choose what books they want to read during carpet time on Day 13. When students are done with their work, they can also go and read any of the books read, so far.

12. Reflection • This was a lengthy assignment to undertake. The one issue I had with this project was a final assessment for kindergarteners. I ended up just doing daily assessments and focusing on a final product, instead of a “unit test” or something of that nature. I work in a kindergarten classroom right now, and I know that assessments for them require a little more creativity and flexibility, than just a unit test. The aspect of this lesson plan that really caught my eye, was the end where the teacher explains the word extinct, and then the students actually get to experience it, by removing all of the animals, each hour. I am concerned with how long it will take to actually carry out this lesson plan in the classroom, and I look forward to one day, actually being able to do just that.