Rainforest Knowledge Grows At Sunrise Drive

At Sunrise Drive Elementary School in Sayville, an amazing tropical Amazon forest grew in a second-grade classroom from seeds of knowledge about the Rainforest.

To begin their study of the rainforest, Second-grade teacher Heather Franze-Heuer introduced her class to the different kinds of rainforests and their locations on earth.

Her students learned that most rain forests are tropical rain forests, so they focused their study on the largest tropical rainforest—the Amazon. “The students had a lot of fun strengthening their research and writing skills as they explored the rainforest ecosystem,” Franze-Heuer explained. “Each student researched a rainforest animal and wrote a book report and haiku poem about that animal.”

In addition to creating flip books that gave descriptions of the layers of the rainforest, the students prepared “travel brochures” about the climate, animals, plants and other natural resources as if they were taking an actual trip. They also created “passports” and suitcase portfolios to hold their rainforest information.

“Finally, we expressed our knowledge of the rainforest, Franze-Heuer concluded, “by creating fun art projects to transform our classroom into a tropical rainforest. The students were filled with pride as they brought their families on a trip to our classroom rainforest on Go-to-School Night.”