Student Centered Rainforest Classroom Transformation

Have you ever seen the room transformations on Instagram or Pinterest and wonder how in the world did this teacher find the time and money to get all these fancy things? Me too. If that’s you - I am so happy for you but ya girl is ballin’ on a budget and believes contract hours keep you sane. 

Here is a fun, low prep and CHEAP way to transform your classroom into a RAINFOREST! And the best part? It is student centered!

Vines:

First thing you’re going to do is find a paper towel dispenser in your school. We have one in our classroom. I literally just pumped out a LONG piece of paper towel, then twisted it together. Hang from your ceiling - I literally stuffed one side under the ceiling tile and then took the other side to do the same. Overlap them to make a more dramatic effect. This will take you about 30 minutes to hang and is the most time you will spend yourself doing anything. Twist the paper towels during dismissal or play time - don’t waste your after school hours 🙂It’ll look something like this when done (ignore the animals I couldn’t find a picture without them!)

Leaves:

Have students help make the leaves for the vines. You can give them green paper to create their own ideas of leaves or have them trace a template. Pro tip: Fold the paper in half, then cut the leaves out. That way, you can hang them over the leaves. You can always staple two leaves together to get the hanging effect too.

Forest Floor:

Give students green paper. Model how to snip the paper to create a grass effect. Glue at the bottom of your walls. I used our cubbies!

Crafts:

Each day your students will learn about a rainforest animal, write about it AND make a craft. You will hang their animals in the “canopy” or on the forest floor. At the end of the 2 weeks, your students will have learned about the 4 layers of the rainforest, rainforest animals, and nonfiction text features! Want to do it too? Here is my Rainforest Bundle with everything you need and more!