Rainforests Fill Minds Of Fourth Graders

By Tanjua Damon

The rainforest in South America provides the entire world with many commodities as well as helping the environment. Head O’ Meadow fourth graders have been learning about the importance of the rainforest and what they can do to help preserve it.

Students in fourth grade took the various layers of the rainforest and researched them, while other groups worked out ways to save the rainforest and how to market the things found in the rainforest like food and medicine.

Miss Siladi’s class presented their research in a presentation last week. Each group took a piece of the forest that was later layered together so that the entire school could see how the forest is put together and what each layer offers.

The students spoke about each layer of the rainforest – forest floor, understory, canopy, and emergent. Within each layer of the forest are different animals, different foods, and different climates. Some parts of the forest only have tree trunks, while other parts have leaves or more vegetation.

The marketing group talked about what products are found in the rainforest and what kinds of things people can use there, like medicine and foods.

“The marketing helps products all over the world,” Kevin Bonacci said. “A lot of businesses wouldn’t be available right now.”

Becky Carrafiello worked in the group that focused on saving the rainforest. The group set up a water bottle so that people could donate their change to help save some of the rainforest. Over $50 had been counted.

“If you don’t have the rainforest, there’s not going to be any cures,” Becky said. “Raising money is one of the most successful ways to save the rainforest and the land.”

The emergent layer of the rainforest has 1,500 species of birds and can have 80 inches of rain a year. Tree trunks can be over six feet wide and it can rain for days at a time.

“All the animals wouldn’t live in the emergent without sunlight. There is a lot of sunlight,” Patrick Pennarola said. “I would probably like to whittle or hunt [if I lived in the rainforest]. I would have something to do.”

The canopy layer of the rainforest has palm trees and flowers. Insects survive by their colors in this layer of the rainforest. It gets most of the light, but acts as a shield to the other layers.

“There are lots of plants. It is interesting. There are lots of cool animals there,” Tina Hartlett said. “They shouldn’t [harm the rainforest]. It would harm the animals and people in the world.”

The forest floor of the rainforest has large animals and lots of insects because of the moist, rich soil. There is not much light on the forest floor because of the canopy layer. Water lilies can be five feet tall on the floor.

“Describing the plants and animals [was interesting],” Becky Trosan said. “Finding books with your topic was most challenging.”

Lots of plants, nuts, insects, and animals can be found in the understory layer of the rainforest. It helps people learn about different things.

“We can learn about new things so we can save people’s lives with medicine. It’s unique with different living things,” Melissa King said. “The way certain animals and plants have adaptation. Toucans can live in the understory so they can get fruit from there. The golden monkey, he is a very beautiful animal.”

The marketing group also has worked on a Web page about the rainforest and what things can be found there as well as what can be done to help preserve the forest where so many things are found that help humans.