Rainforest Animals

A WebQuery for 2nd Grade

Jose Munoz
munozjo@cwu.edu

Introduction

The rainforest is full of interesting and amazing animals! The class will have the opportunity to explore/learn about an animal that they may have never seen, heard, or imagined about! All the animals will come from the rainforest. Each student will be given an animal from the rainforest to research and then share his or her findings to the class. The students will also create a mask that will depict their animal to use during their presentation.

Task

Students will draw an animal from a hat, after they have their animal they will begin their research. The students job will then be to find interesting facts of information on their animal. After they have found some important facts on their animal, they will list these facts onto a blake sheet of paper. The students will then create a mask that will depict their animal. They will use this mask to present their animal to the class, so it would be like the animal introducing itself to the classroom.

Your Visual Aid should include:

Should be creative
Visually appealing/details
Show any characteristics that set your animal apart from everyone else's
Performance of the animal to the class

Your Presentation should include:

Introduce your animal with mask on
Share what you learned about your animal
Have strong and clear voice when presenting
Be in animal character like; how do you think the animal would sound or act like (mannerisms)

The Process

There is an abundance of information on rainforest animals and it can be overwhelming if you don't know what your looking for. So when researching and finding interesting facts about your animal, here are some questions to think about when researching your animal:

What does it look like to you?
What color is your animal?
Does your animal have different colors based on it gender (if it's a boy or girl)?
Does your animal have stripes, spots, or just a plain color?
What layer of the rainforest does your animal live in?
What does it eat?
What is its main food source (its favorite food)?
Does it have a predator?
Is your animal a herbivore (eats plants only), carnivore (eats meat only), or omnivore (eats both)?
Is your animal an endangered species?
What is one new/crazy fact about your animal?

Don't limit yourself to these prompts/questions, if you find anything interesting to you and want to share it that will be amazing!

Resources

Besides books that I have provided, here is a list of site's that I found helpful! However, if you can't find what you are looking for, then you can branch out and start your own search. Remember, I am here if you need any help.

KIDS.MONGABAY.COM

Great place to find pictures and information. Plus, it's kid friendly!

LERNING ABOUT RAINFOREST ANIMALS

Great site to find information on rainforest animals

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

An excellent source to find information on any animal!

GOOGLE

If you want to explore for more information then here is a good starting point.

Evaluation

Presentation/Visual Performance (mask) Rubric:

CATEGORY	6	4	2	Comments
Introduction of animal/Voice	Was loud and clear for the whole class to hear. Introduced him/her self to the class and their animal.	Voice was to low, hard to hear. Introduced him/her self to the class and their animal.	Voice was to low, hard to hear. Forgot to introduce self or did not introduce animal.
Preparedness	Student is completely prepared and has obviously rehearsed.	Student seems pretty prepared but might have needed a couple more rehearsals.	The student is somewhat prepared, but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking.
Content	Shows a full understanding of the topic. Gives interesting information and facts about their animal	Shows a good understanding of the topic. Some facts about their animal.	Shares little information about their animal. Could have found more facts.
Mask	Visually and creatively appealing and has great detail on it. Student shows that he/she spent a good amount of time on it.	Shows some good detail, shows that the student spent considerable amount of time on it.	Creative but lacks detail, shows that the student did not spend enough time on it.
Performance	The student was creative and wore their mask during the presentation. Got into character and had fun with it.	Student wore the mask during the presentation but did not get into character.	Student refused to wear or did not have a mask. Did not get into character.

Conclusion

Wow! Did you learn something new about rainforest animals? Which one did you like, either than yours? I am very proud of you guys for researching your animal and creating such amazing masks! You guys also impressed me during your presentations to the class, not only did you guys deliver, you respected your fellow classmates during their presentations. Good Job!

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