What is a Rainforest?
Rainforests are forests characterized by high and continuous rainfall, with annual rainfall in the case of tropical rainforests between 2.5 and 4.5 metres and definitions varying by region for temperate rainforests.
What is a rainforest made up of?
A rainforest is typically made up of four key layers: emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor. In the top emergent layer, trees as tall as 200 feet (60 meters) grow far apart and tall, their branches reaching above the canopy
The rainforest gets an average of 50 to 250 inches (1.2-6.3m) of rain through the year. It is warm all year round, rarely getting above 34°C (94 °F) or getting below 20 °C (68 °F). It has an average humidity of 77 to 88%. Tropical rainforests occur in three major geographical areas around the world. These areas are:https://kids.kiddle.co/Rainforest
- Parts of South and Central America – the Amazon River basin, and Costa Rica.
- Africa – Congo River basin, with a small area in West Africa; also eastern Madagascar.
- South Asia and Australasia – west coast of India, Assam, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Queensland, Australia.
Field Trip time :
Today’s Book:
Yara loves her beautiful rainforest! Will she be able to save it?
Yara lives with her Mama in the lush Amazon jungle. She wants to rescue her beloved but increasingly besieged rainforest home. When Yara falls gravely ill, the forest returns the love and saves Yara’s life.
“A story with a good ecological message and vibrant paintings…” – Kirkus Reviews
* 2019 Literary Titans Gold Award Winner.
* 2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Award Winner.
Lyrical and stunningly illustrated with full-page watercolors, this is the first volume in Yossi Lapid and Joanna Pasek newly published Yara’s Rainforest series, showing children how all living things on our beautiful planet depend on one another.
On the bank of the river, in a house made of wood,
Close to the place where the scared seedling stood,
A hard-working mother and her kindhearted child,
Lived freely together, eating food from the wild.
Yara hugged Mama and went off to the woods
For mushrooms and berries and other such goods.
But something strange happened: A parrot named Chant,
Led her down a small path to the terrified plant.
“This is a truly wonderful story with absolutely remarkable artwork… It hits all the marks that an educator or parents would want!”Briar’s Reviews (5-star review)
This timely rhyming picture book will educate and delight children and parents alike. It is ideal for beginner readers and it will make bedtime fun for toddlers, preschoolers, and even older kids. It makes a great gift, and it belongs in any picture book collection.
Activities: Rain Forest Animals
Frog College ( torn paper) , Paper Plate : Frog, Snake and Sloth.
I love making quick easy crafts at our Library with the kids and talk about the Habitat that these animals live in. I am on a tight budget so these are all easy and fun crafts with basic supplies I had on hand. Paper plate crafts are one of our favorites/ Take a plain paper plate and fold in half for a frog face, Cut around a painted green paper plate too make a coiled snake, and our sloth body is a cut in half paper plate colored and added features from construction paper. Lisa
Why should we care ?
Climate stability
Rainforests also play a vital role in the planet’s water and carbon cycles and in regulating climate.
Yet today, rainforest destruction releases more CO2 than all the world’s cars, planes and ships put together.
Earth systems scientists like James Lovelock believe that rainforest conservation is vital to stabilising CO2 emissions and combating dangerous climate change.
Biological diversity
Tropical rainforests are thought to contain around 50% of all the Earth’s species of plants and animals, though they cover only about 6% of the land surface. (8,000 years ago, they covered about double the current area.) Rainforests are a priceless and economically vital source of food and medicine, wood and water, building and craft materials and much, much more.
Want more information how kids can help https://www.kidssavingtherainforest.org/
Lisa s Everyday Life 