Students can practice their map skills by researching where the world's temperate rainforests are located. Give each student a blank world map and ask them to color in temperate rainforest areas. They should label each area with the name of the forest found there.
Get the whole class in action to create a living demonstration of the layers of a temperate rainforest to spark a discussion of the plants and animals that make their home within each layer. Have the taller kids stand on a row of chairs at the front to represent the giant California redwoods, Sitka spruces, Western red cedars and Western hemlock trees of the canopy. Another row of students stands on the floor in front of them as the broadleaf trees, such as dogwoods and maples, of the upper understory. A third row of students kneels in front of them as the low-growing shrubs of the understory, while the remaining students lie on the floor to represent mosses and lichens on the forest floor. Discuss how much light each layer receives and how plants and animals adapt to life in that level to ensure their survival. Another option is to play rainforest charades and act out animal life cycles or behavior at different seasons of the year.
Young students can begin to identify plant and animal species in the rainforest by creating an illustrated ABC book. Make a large class book or let each student make his own. Draw or paste pictures on each page of things that live in the rainforest that start with the corresponding letter.
Artistically inclined students may enjoy creating a rainforest comic strip that illustrates the daily adventures of a single animal in the temperate rainforest. Have the artists work in pencil before inking their strip. Let students choose whether to color their comics or leave them black and white.
An even more ambitious rainforest art project is to create a giant class mural of a rainforest scene, whether by coloring or cutting and pasting shapes. If you can get permission to cover a school or community wall with your mural, enlist the help of a professional artist to help block out the design and oversee the painting as it is transferred to the wall. Otherwise, create your mural on a long piece of butcher paper and display it on a hallway wall around the school.
During a study of the temperate rainforests, students will become junior experts on many aspects of rainforest life and responsible behavior when visiting the forest. Projects such as posters, books and travel brochures allow them to transfer their knowledge into a format that communicates that knowledge to others who need it. One student may create a rainforest conservation poster, another a book of rainforest facts and pictures, while a third can design a travel brochure that introduces potential visitors to key places and things to see and look for, what to expect weather-wise and tips on traveling in a temperate rainforest.