Teach children language arts during a rainforest-themed unit. Read stories that pertain to the rainforest, including "The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest" by Lynne Cherry, "Inside the Amazing Amazon" by Don Lessem and "Welcome to the Green House" by Yolen Jane. Read aloud the books and discuss the contents of the books while reading. Create crafts that relate to the stories to promote greater comprehension of them. Instill phonemic awareness by using words that relate to the rainforest to teach letter-sound recognition; "A" is for "anaconda" or "S" is for "sloth."
Use a rainforest-theme to teach elementary students math skills. Use pictures of poison dart frogs or other rainforest animals as manipulatives to teach addition or subtraction. Explore graphing by having students graph the different types of animals or plants, or their favorite types of animals or plants from the rainforest. Use a non-scaled image of the trunk of a Kapok tree as a non-standard measurement tool.
Explore the rainforest in a scientific way. Explore the different species of animals that live in the rainforest; mammals, reptiles and amphibians, for example. Discuss the difference between these species and sort pictures of the animals based on their species. Explore how rain is vital for plant growth by observing what happens to plants that are watered and plants that are not watered.
Social Studies is another content area that can be studied during a rainforest theme. Teach students about the culture of tribes and indigenous people of the rainforest. Compare and contrast these cultures with students' culture. Teach children about the destruction of the rainforest and explain how it greatly impacts the global environment. Have students think of ways that they can help to save the rainforest and make posters that encourage others to save the rainforest.