Five senses of the rain forest

In this lesson, students use their five senses to observe rain forests and determine what it might be like to visit a rain forest. Students will better understand rain forests and their importance, as well as record observations in a bubble map.

A lesson plan for grade K English Language Arts and Science

By Natalie Hudson

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Related pages

• Look and listen: Exploring the five senses: This group of shared reading lessons is based on the book Look by Jillian Cutting. They are designed to be used as a part of an integrated classroom unit on the five senses.
• Slipsliding poetry: Students will work with a partner to write an original piece of poetry to express information learned about the rain forest and an animal that lives in that habitat. Students will share their poems by creating a multimedia slide show.
• Horizons Unlimited: This wonderful education center and museum provides hands-on programs for students in the areas of history and the physical and biological sciences.

Related topics

• Learn more about five senses, rain forests, and science.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• use their five senses to better understand properties.
• use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate their work from the five senses stations focusing on rain forests.

Teacher planning

Time required

90 minutes

Materials needed

• Bananas — one small piece for each student
• Water bottle with mist option
• Rain forest sounds from a CD or website
• Rain forest pictures and/or short video
• Decomposed log and leaves in a container
• The Great Kapok Tree
• Five Senses Bubble Map — one per student

Technology resources

• Interactive white board or a computer with internet connected to a multimedia projector
• CD player (optional)

Handouts/Resources

Pre-activities

The teacher should introduce the concept of the five senses and their importance prior to teaching this lesson.

Activities

1. Begin with a class discussion about the importance of preserving rain forests. This discussion will help activate the students’ prior knowledge of rain forests for this lesson. Some sample discussion questions include:
   1. Why are rain forests important?
   2. Why do we need rain forests?
   3. What can we do to help rain forests and the animals and plants that live there?
2. Review the five senses and how they help us observe and understand the world around us.
3. Tell the students that there are five stations already set up around the room. Each station represents one of the five senses. Explain what the students will be doing at each station.
   1. Station one (taste): At this station, the students will sample a piece of banana. Explain that bananas, as well as many other foods we eat, come from the rain forest.
   2. Station two (touch): Spray water mist on students’ faces or arms. Explain that this is how it feels in the rain forest. Ask the students why they think it feels this way.
   3. Station three (smell): Have the students smell the container with the decomposed logs or leaves. Explain that this is how it smells in the rain forest. Ask the students why they think it smells this way.
   4. Station four (sound): Have the students listen to rain forest sounds on the interactive white board, computer, or CD player. Explain that this is how it sounds in the rain forest. Ask the students what they hear.
   5. Station five (sight): Have the students watch a short video of an animal in the rain forest on the interactive white board or computer (or have them look at a picture of a rain forest). Ask the students what they see.
4. Give each student a copy of the Five Senses Bubble Map handout.
5. Students should have about five minutes at each station to make an observation and fill in their bubble maps. You can either have the students write a descriptive word for each observation or have them sound out the word in each station. For example, when they are eating a piece of banana, they may write “banana” or “sweet” and draw a picture of a banana in the bubble for that station. Choose the option that will help your students be most successful.
6. As students are working, you should be the one telling students when and where to rotate, helping students to understand their observations, informally assessing the objectives at hand, and helping students sound out the words they would like to use in their bubble maps if necessary.
7. Once everyone has rotated through the five stations and filled in their bubble maps, the class will come back together to read The Great Kapok Tree. This can be done later in the day if a break from this lesson is needed.
8. After reading the book, revisit the importance of rain forests and what we can do to help conserve them. Possible discussion questions include:
   1. What did you learn about rain forests today?
   2. What does the rain forest look like?
   3. How does the rain forest feel?
   4. How do some of the fruits from the rain forest taste?
   5. What does a rain forest smell like?
   6. What sounds do you hear in a rain forest?
   7. What sense did you use when you went to the ___________ station?
   8. How does it make you feel to know that plans and animals are having a hard time surviving in rain forests? What can we do to help?
9. If time allows, you may want to make a whole-class bubble map of students’ ideas from each of the stations to reinforce the concepts learned in this lesson.

Assessment

• Students can be informally assessed as they participate in the stations and group discussions.
• You may choose to collect the students’ bubble maps to make sure students used descriptive words that make sense for each bubble.

Modifications

• If you do not have a lot of assistance in your room, you can modify this lesson by doing each station as a whole group instead of having the students rotate through them in small groups.
• For English Language Learners: You can modify this lesson by asking the students to write the initial letter of each word in the bubble map. For example, they would write “B” for “banana.” If needed, the student could also travel from station to station and orally tell you (or a buddy) what they are observing in each station.

Critical vocabulary

observe

to pay attention or become aware; to perceive

hear

to perceive sound by the ear

sight

to perceive what we see by the eye

touch

to perceive with skin contact

smell

to perceive scent by the nose

taste

to perceive with taste buds in the mouth

Comments

This lesson plan was created based on an Amazon rain forest workshop in Raleigh, NC. This workshop was funded by North Carolina State University for the purpose of giving teachers information, time, and resources to create lesson plans that communicate the importance of the Amazon rain forest to the global community, including North Carolina teachers and students.