A Geography topic for KS2, looking at the climate, plants, animals, and natural resources found in the tropical rainforest. It includes a study on the Amazon Rainforest, and why we should save the rainforest.

INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD RESOURCES (POWERPOINTS)

• Rainforest introduction: A beginning to the topic, asking what children already know. It shows where all the world's rainforests are located on a map, and describes the four main areas where rainforests grow. It explains the definitions of a tropical rainforest, and how it differs from a temperate rainforest. It ends with questions.
• Rainforest climate: Explains the difference between climate and weather, and looks at world climate zones, and what they are called. It describes temperature, rainfall and humidity in tropical rainforests.
• Rainforest plants: Looks at, and explains the different layers that grow in a rainforest. It explains plant adaptations, with questions on how different plants have adapted to living in the rainforest.
• Natural resources in the rainforest: Looks at the different natural resources that are found in rainforest areas, such as palm oil, wood, the cacao tree, the rubber tree, and medicines. It explains their uses in a global society.
• Saving the rainforest: Explores all the different reasons why the rainforest is disappearing - logging, settlement, agriculture, cattle rearing, road building, and extraction of natural resources. Discusses why it is important to save the rainforests, and what could happen if they disappear. It looks at different viewpoints - governments, companies, inhabitants, and the global community. It explains what is being done to save the rainforests, and what we can do to help.
• The Amazon Rainforest: Locates the Amazon Rainforest, river, and basin on maps, and shows the different countries that the Amazon rainforest spans. Looks at the history of the rainforest, the people who live there, and the animals. Explains interdependence, and how important plants and animals in the rainforest are to each other. It explains the current threats to the rainforest, and why it is so important to the rest of the world.

PRINTABLE WORKSHEETS (PDF)

• Locating the rainforests: A blank world map, for the children to locate the rainforests.
• Rainforest layers: Drawing of the layers in the forest for the children to label and describe.