Practice animal classification with a fun activity. Discuss the different classifications of animals with a vertebra. Show the students examples. Divide a poster board into five categories: mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish and bird. Give students magazines to sort through, cut out pictures of animals for each category, and then glue them on the board. When the board is completed, the students will discuss why they chose each picture and placed it where they did on the board.
Trees are aged by the number of rings found on a cross-section of the tree. Provide your students with tree cookies, slices cut from a tree stump. Have students count the rings in their cookie. Teach them to examine the sizes of the tree rings and discuss what the different thicknesses could mean. Give them magnifying lenses to look more closely at the cookies. Have students draw a personalized tree cookie that matches their own ages. This lesson will meet several national standards.
Teach students about the role of insects in the forest. Have each child research a pollinating insect. The child should make a colorful poster of his insect that includes information about the insect and the plants it pollinates. Display the posters on the bulletin board. Remove one poster at a time and lead the students in a discussion about how its absence would affect the forest. Use a felt-board forest to demonstrate how loss would affect each plant by removing the plants from the board as the insect is discussed.
Provide students with photographs of birds' nests in the forest. Place students in groups of three or four. Give each group a picture, a shoe box, paint, and the materials necessary to create a diorama. Include the materials to create eggs for their nest. The students will construct a scene to duplicate the bird's nest in the picture. Students will research their bird and give a group oral report to the rest of the class.