Sylvia Said:

does anyone have any good ideas for a lesson plan on rainforests for key stage 2?

We Answered:

As a teacher myself, i am offended, not by the question, but to those people who are calling this person lazy and telling him to re-think his profession!
Those people who have been teachers know that the curriculum is over crowded as it is, way too much time is spent planning not to mention assessing, marking, reporting, making resources and all the other things that go with it! I dont see any problem with a fellow teacher asking for ideas, ive surely done it, no teacher is perfect nor does any 1 teacher have ALL the answers - so why kid yourself that you do. Very nieve if you think you are beyond asking for help / ideas not to mention very narrow minded and quiet scary. Have the other teachers here never asked for help with planing or lesson ideas ?? I doubt it!

Anyway, when i teach abuot rain forests i like to get the kids as active as possible. I was lucky in Australia we had a local forest we could go and visit but even if you cant, looking at pictures, videos and immersing students in the total experience, visual, audio everything in between. Get them to classify animals, plants and the parts of the rainforest ... identify animals that are dependant on parts and as a further investigation , possibly for G&T students get them to investiate de-forestation and hold a mini debate on the topic. There are tonnes of ideas for art activies, making dioramas or collages is also fun and keeps them involved!
Hope this helps, and ignore the other 'teachers' who think they are beyond asking for help, personally i am appaled that so called professionals would even give a response like that. Everyone needs ideas and pointers in their teaching life. There are good websites (i dont know any right now) but they actually have forums for teachers to ask and discuss... im sure those here are not members, but there are hundreds of teachers always willing to help.
Good Luck! Have fun!