Kapok Tree and Environmental Science Activities (#26)

-

The Kapok Tree Interactive Activity:

by Lynne Cherry

"One day, a man exhausts himself trying to chop down a giant kapok tree. While he sleeps, the forest’s residents, including a child from the Yanomamo tribe, whisper in his ear about the importance of trees and how "all living things depend on one another" . . . and it works."

Have children pick parts and act out the story as you read along.



Go on a Virtual Field Trip:

to the Amazon Rainforest



Or the African Safari 

Jaguar in the Forest:

The jaguar is one of the fiercest predators in the rainforest. He is swift and silent of foot, often catching his pray by surprise. Young children can pretend to be the creatures of the rainforests, innocently going about their business when the howler monkey sounds off the call of alarm. 


Assign children animals parts making sure one is a jaguar and at least two are Howler Monkeys. Ask children to move about the playing area, pretending to be creatures of the rainforest and busying themselves by crawling, climbing, or searching for food. When the Howler monkey identifies the jaguar, he sounds the alarm by screeching and warning all the creatures to run and hide. 

Discuss with children the importance of all the animals in the rainforest, talk about interdependent relationships and the effect of endangered species to other animals and their habitat. 

Five Things I Know About...:

Encourage children to think about what they already know about a topic before introducing and teaching them about it. 
Carbon

Recycling 

Climate Change

Greenhouse Effect

Pollution

Coal

This information about what children think they already know about a topic can help you plan what to teach and how to use that information.

Making Wildflower Seed Balls:


These are fun and easy to make and a great activity to encourage children to think about how to support their environment and animals. 

Cleaning Features from an Oil Spill:

Natural features, cooking oil, and water

dry feather

feather soaked in oil

Oil and water do not mix and this bird cannot fly

Cleaning the feathers in water and Dawn Dish Soap

Takes a little while but with dawn dish soap the oil can be cleaned off!

**Remember to save your mascara wands and donate them to save the animals**


Searching for Color in Nature:

These paint swatches can be picked up at any paint or hardware store. You could even try this activity with the regular paint swatches.

Have children go out in nature and try to find something natural that matches their color.

Children's Books Related to Environmental Science:






 Technology and Apps Related to Environmental Science:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Endangered Animals and Habitats (#25)

-
Image
Endangered Animals and Habitats: The endangered species include one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation. In the last 500 years, human activity has forced over 800 species into extinction. Learn more about the animals and how you can help http://www.animalplanet.com/wild-animals/endangered-species/ Videos, information, and ways to help endangered animal https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/mission-animal-rescue/raise-awareness/ Mission Animal Rescue, educates about most endangered species, but also teaches how to rescue them. Activities For Children Related to Endangered Animals and Habitats: Wrapped up in plastic Have children put a rubber band on their pinky then over the back of their hand and on to their thumb. Try to pick up as much bird feed as you ...
Read more

Create Your Own Planet (#18)

-
Image
Our Solar System Our solar system includes the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Dwarf Planets, and moons. EARTH Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the fifth largest planet, and is the densest of all planets in our Solar System. Earth is a rocky, terrestrial planet, it's surface has mountains, valleys, canyons, plains, rivers, and oceans. About 70% of Earth's surface is made up of water, the rest is made up of islands and continents. Earth is the only known planet in our solar system to be able to support life. Creating Your Own Planet: After exploring and researching about Earth and other planet's, students can use their knowledge of planet systems such as the materials it is composed of, land-forms, climate and weather systems, and environments and lifeforms, to create and describe their own planet.  Materials :  Planet structure- Styrofoam, floral foam, paper-mache, cardboard, clay Dec...
Read more

Rocks and Minerals (#21)

-
Image
Quartz:   Quartz one of the most common minerals on Earth, you can find it in sand and most types of rock. It is made from a chemical compound called silicon dioxide. Quartz is piezoelectric, which means if you squeeze a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny electric voltage. The opposite is also true, if you apply a voltage to a piece of quartz, it vibrates at a precise frequency. Quartz watches work in a very different way to pendulum clocks and ordinary watches. The gears are regulated by a tiny crystal of quartz instead of a swinging pendulum or a moving balance wheel. Inside a quartz clock or watch, the battery sends electricity to the quartz crystal through an electronic circuit. The quartz crystal oscillates (vibrates back and forth) at a precise frequency: exactly 32768 times each second. The circuit counts the number of vibrations and uses them to generate regular electric pulses, one per second. These pulses can either power an LCD display (showing th...
Read more