This document provides summaries of two books about rainforests: - The first book, "The Rainforest Grew All Around", uses a rhyming poem to describe the different plants and animals found on each level of the rainforest from the forest floor to the canopy. Colorful illustrations accompany the text. - The second book, "Totally AMAZING Rain Forests", provides information about different rainforest animals through photos, jokes, and cartoons. It describes how animals live and their roles in the ecosystem. The book also discusses the different habitats and times of day in the rainforest.

1. Mitchell, S.K. (2007). The Rainforest Grew All Around. SC: Sylvan Dell
Publishing.
Type: Juvenile Literature and Poetry
Age Level: 1st grade
Summary: This book involves the things that live and grow in the rainforest with a song or
rhyme. It tells about what goes on in the rainforest to the song “The Green Grass Grew All
Around.” It starts on the forest floor and goes through all the way to the canopy. On each page
beside the part of the song it has a side bar that tells about the animal in the song. This song will
help students remember things that live and grow in the rainforest and it’s fun!
Organization and Structure: Enumerative: this book explains what plants grow and what
animals live on each level of the rainforest. Also gives interesting facts about each plant or
animal.
Visuals: Beautiful illustrations
Access Features:
Sidebars
Animal quiz
Plant quiz
Strategy: Collaborative Books
You could use collaborative books to introduce the rainforest topic or you could do it after you
read the book. I would do the collaborative book after the book to see how much they learned. I
would display pictures of plants and animals so they could choose one. Then each student would
pick one and color and write a page for the book. For example if it was a bird they would color it
in the trees and describe the bird like what they eat and look like. After all the students are
finished we could do an authors chair to show their work, then bind it and put it in our library.
Classroom Recommendations: As a class we could illustrate a big rainforest and label the
levels then place the pictures of the plants and animals where they belong.

2. We could also copy the poem and use pictures in the poem so it would be easy to remember and
read.
For example:
The cat in the tree,
and the tree from the seed,
and the seed in the ground.

3. Graham, Kate. (1998). Totally AMAZING Rain Forests. New York, NY: Golden
Books.
Type: Survey nonfiction
Age Level: 5th grade
Summary: This book gives a lot of information about different animals that live in the Rain
Forest. On any page there are jokes, cartoons, and a “That’s Weird” section. Under all the
photographs there is a caption to describe the beautiful pictures. The touches on the different
animals that live on the levels, different habitats in the rain forest, and day and night times.
Organization and Structure: Enumerative: This book talks about the different animals in the
rain forest. It describes how they live, what they eat, and their purpose in the rain forest. It tells
about what makes up the rainforest.
Visuals:
Illustrations
Pictures also life size pictures
Captions
Access Features:
Index
Glossary
Sidebars
Strategy: Hot Seat
The way I would use this is like Charades. The students would sit in the “Hot Seat” they would
think quickly about what animals they would want to be in the rain forest. They could act like the
animals like slithering to be a snake. Then the other students would have to guess, they can ask
yes or no questions to try to decipher which animal they are. This activity deepens their
understanding and shows their knowledge if a fun way.
Classroom Recommendations:
I would use this book at the end of a lesson just to have fun with it. It’s hands on and kinesthetic.
They could also write about which animals they would be and why. They could talk about what
they would do like A day in the life of a… whatever animals they wanted to be.