Read the book "The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest," written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry. In the story a young man with an axe who came to cut down forests in the trees falls asleep and the animals of the rain forest take turns trying to give him subliminal messages about how important the tree is to the ecosystem and why preserving the rain forest is important. The beautiful drawings and message of environmental responsibility have made this book a bestseller and the winner of several prestigious awards, including a Charlotte Award and an International Reading Association Teacher's Choice Award.
Make a lapbook about the rain forest. Lapbooks are inexpensive educational tools that can be the basis of a very detailed multifaceted project. To make a lapbook, you make a number of small elements and put them inside a file folder to create a display when open. Elements might include a miniature booklet about kapok trees, a folded map of the world marking the rain forests regions, an envelope pocket holding flash cards on rain forest animals or a flip book explaining the layers of a rain forest. All the smaller elements are arranged and glued into the folder. Children can decorate the cover, and lapbooks are easy to carry and store away.
Children inspired to save the rain forest can become activists. Let them make posters about preserving and protecting the rain forest to display. Alternately, they can make cards to send out to family and friends explaining the importance of protecting the rain forests. You can double the activity as a lesson in computer usage and help children make a blog or a web page about the cause. They can even add links to charities involved with rain forest preservation.
Assign children research and writing projects on the kapok tree and how various cultures in America, Africa and the East Indies have used this tree. If you have been learning about different ecosystems, have children write a paper comparing and contrasting a tropical rain forest to a temperate rain forest. For a creative writing project, you can get ideas from "The Great Kapok Tree" book and have students pretend they are the main character. From the main character's point of view, have children write a letter to the man who sent him to cut down the tree, explaining why he doesn't want to do it.