Rain Forest

One of the images that tends to be front and center when it comes to home schoolers is that of phenomenal projects and great learning experiences. That can be quite intimidating, especially for those of us to whom such creativity does not come naturally! But, every now and then an idea does come to me. (And, I look forward to Olivia continuing to grow and learn because I think her creative mind will be a treasure-trove of ideas.)

When I realized that we were going to be spending a week and a half on rain forests, an idea amazingly popped into my mind. Create a rain forest! The girls had been drawing pictures of what they were learning. What about cutting and molding instead? So, off we went. The result was a much less than perfect and very disproportionate rain forest creation of which I am incredibly proud! The girls worked so hard, didn't back down from challenges, and learned a lot about rain forests in the process. We put it all together on Monday - here are the pictures!

Painting the backdrop.

The finished backdrop Angie's sloth

Olivia's gorillaThe rain forest scene - notice the addition of colorful plants to the backdrop - cacao pods on one tree, bananas and banana flowers hanging down, an enormous bromeliad on the right, and some rosy periwinkles here and there.
Close-ups of...

Angie's tiger jumping out to attack Olivia's okapi with a snake nearby in the undergrowth.

Angie's sloth hanging from a tree near a bunch of bananas.

Yep, even Steven got in on the action! Here's his snake perched on a limb.

The proud girls with their finished project.