Have you ever read The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry? This book is PERFECT for this week because we are celebrating Earth Day! It is a beautiful story about a man who falls asleep as he is trying to chop down trees in the rainforest. Exquisite animals from the rainforest journey down to whisper in his ear while he is sleeping. They whisper in his ear about the importance of the rainforest.

Video Read Aloud and Lesson
You can find the read aloud of this story with a lesson on sensory language below.
Here is a link that you can share with your students: bit.ly/GreatKapok
Sensory Language
Throughout the read aloud we discuss the different examples of sensory language that we find. Students learn the importance of sensory language and how it brings a book to life.

Directed Drawing
After the read aloud and lesson, students can draw a picture of a toucan. The toucan was one of the animals that persuaded the man to not chop down the trees.

Toucans actually play a vital role in the health of the rain forest. They pass seeds from the fruit that they eat through their digestive systems! Your students can research even more interesting facts about toucans in the document I provide below!

For More Activities:
Click HERE to dive deep into The Great Kapok Tree with your students
Click HERE to find the book on Amazon
The Great Kapok Tree Activities
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Thanks for this freebie! Our team is trying to theme each week of distance learning to encourage our first graders to engage more in the learning. It’s working! They are excited to find out every Monday what the next theme will be. We are going to have a rainforest theme next week and your lesson will be perfect. When I try to click on the links for toucan research they do not work. We’d love to use this if we can get a corrected link. Thanks!
It should be fixed now