Plants:

Teaching Students Using the Virtual Rainforest

The Virtual Rainforest is primarily an educational website and it is our goal to have it used as much as possible to teach students about tropical rainforests. It focuses on the rainforests of the Americas (Neotropical Rainforests).

If you do use the Virtual Rainforest in your classroom, please email Dr. Gerald Urquhart to let us know how many classrooms are using the website.

We have developed a few classroom exercises that you can print out and use. They are available in MS Word and PDF versions.

• Scavenger Hunt (DOC | PDF) - Finding the names of plants and animals that belong to certain groups.
  Appropriate for grades 2-4
• Fact Hunt (DOC | PDF) - Finding facts about the plants and animals by reading the stories.
  Appropriate for grades 5-7.

Teaching SPANISH Using the Virtual Rainforest

Teaching Spanish to children is a lot of fun, especially if they can learn words that excite their imaginations. Dr. Urquhart has used photos from the Virtual Rainforest to teach different lessons in Spanish to local elementary schools in Lansing, Michigan. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MODIFY THESE IN ANY WAY TO FIT YOUR CLASS. Both PowerPoint (PPT) and Web (HTML) versions are available.

Vamos al Bosque Humédo/Let’s Go to the Rain Forest (PPT | HTML)
By showing a large number of different rainforest plants and animals, this lecture illustrates the noun-adjective pattern in Spanish vs. adjective noun in English. It teaches students names of rainforest plants and animals in a fun way.
IF YOU USE THE HTML VERSION, click on "Slide Show" in the lower right corner for full screen.

Mi Visita a Nicaragua/My Visit to Nicaragua (PPT | HTML)
This lesson emphasizes conjugation of verbs showing first, second and third person as well as plural usages, and discusses present and past tense.
IF YOU USE THE HTML VERSION, click on "Slide Show" in the lower right corner for full screen.

We have developed a few classroom exercises that you can print out and use. They are available in MS Word and PDF versions.

• Spanish Rainforest Word Find (XLS | PDF | Teacher's KEY)
  Appropriate for grades 2-6.
• Spanish Rainforest Crossword Puzzle (DOC | PDF | Teacher's KEY)
  Appropriate for grades 4-8.

To learn more about current issues in the rainforest, please visit Mongabay.com, the leading source for news and information about rainforests.