Get Outside to Celebrate National Environmental Education Week!

Spring is in the air, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and this week is National Environmental Education Week!  Take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and get kids outside to explore the nature in their neighborhood.  Invite students to search for signs of life around their school and home — such as birds, animal tracks, scat, feathers, nests, different types of trees and grasses — and write down their findings and draw pictures in a nature journal.

Then, start to think about how these species are related to each other.  One way that species are interconnected is through the web of life.

What species would you find if you took a walk in a tropical forest?  How are the unique species living in rainforests connected to each other through the food web?

Ask students to choose a different animal or plant species and research its diet, habitat and threats.  Then, have students stand in a large circle and use a string or a rope to represent the links between each person. One person starts by saying the name they chose and then the class works together to determine how that plant or animal is connected to another organism in the circle. The rope is then passed to that organism. The goal is to finish with a web that connects everyone.

Think you understand this web of life?  Play Rainforest Survival Challenge to test your knowledge of predators and prey in the Amazon.

This lesson and others can be found for free on the Rainforest Alliance Learning Site.