Saturday, April 11, 2009
We've been thoroughly immersed in slavery and Civil War these past few months, so the kids requested that we add in a unit study for a little levity. We settled on a rainforest theme, and we've had a blast these past several weeks.
I used two primary sources for ideas and templates for the lapbooks, and some the kids created on their own. Jimmie's Rainforest Lapbook, like all of Jimmie's lapbooks, is phenomenal. She has loads of fantastic resources and photos on this site. Homeschool Share has a fantastic literature-based study of The Kapok Tree, including lots of great templates. Our lapbooks were not as detailed nor as complex as the two above, but we had all had enough of the rainforest and were satisfied with the study.
Our resources included:
Zoo Life with Jack Hanna: Wonders of the Rainforest
National Geographic: Wacky Rainforest
Animals of the Amazon (Coyote Creek Animal Safari with Karla Majewski)—kids loved this
Magic School Bus: In the Rainforest
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry*****
The Umbrella by Jan Brett
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth by Eric Carle
The Giant Book of the Jungle*****
A Walk Through a Rain Forest by David and Mark Jenike
Usborne Discovery Snakes (internet linked)
Usborne Rainforest Wildlife
*****There are bazillions of books out there about the jungle. We just used the guidebooks we had at home and the few story books from the library. If I could only use two books, however, these two would suffice!
Since we couldn't go to Papua New Guinea, we settled for taking a field trip to the nearby Rainforest Adventure in Sevierville.
We rarely do a lapbook as our "main" course. Lapbooking for us is usually a way to get in a little extra science or to make a complicated subject come to life. Lapbooking is a fantastic way to make a unit study more memorable. If you have no idea how to start, check out my Lapbooking Resources post. I am by no means a lapbooking expert, but I can point you in the direction of a few!