At Rainforest Action Network, we are always amazed at how much kids do to help save the world's rainforests. We wanted to give teachers and students a place to show off their hard work. Here you'll find a few examples of the great stuff that kids have been doing.
To let us know what you're doing, please write to us at education@ran.org.
To read about a Rainforest Hero in action, check out our interview with Brower Youth Award-winning activist, Hannah McHardy.
The Kennard Classical Junior Academy in St. Louis, Missouri started a Tiger Pride Club led by teacher Jennifer Beffa which has begun making a rainforest mural and held a button contest that raised $285.00 for RAN’s Protect An Acre program!
The 2nd grade classrooms of Mrs. Rounds, Ms. Lenihan and Ms. Marczak of Red Hill Elementary in Gypsum, Colorado held a Rainforest Read-A-Thon. This took place over a two week period in which the children tracked the number of pages read on tracking sheets and then went to potential donors who pledged anywhere from one cent to five cents per page. At the end of the two week period they held an all day Read-A-Thon at which time the students read all day and tracked their final pages. After all was said and done between the three classes they read a combined total of 11,784 pages which raised a whopping $822.46 for the Protect-an-Acre program!
Nathalie Lauriault Grade 3 class of St John’s Kilmarnock school in Ontario Canada had a rain forest bake sale. As part of the community unit one of the inquiries that Grade 3 could explore is “The responsibility to our communities”. The project took 3 weeks with committees being formed. All committees gave up their lunch recesses to work; the bakers even had to bake 150 cupcakes for the entire school! The bake sale was a success and the children raised over 300 dollars which will be donated to the Rainforest Action Network organisation.
The Student Council at the Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park, California raised $1578 by selling custom-made wristbands that read "PBS Saves the Rainforest!" As well, each science class integrated into its curriculum rainforest topics, including doing weather reports from the rainforest, decomposing fruits, learning about chemistry of the rainforest, ecology and global warming. In art class, students created a rainforest, using many recycled materials from other classes.
Mrs. Brianne’s forth grade classes from Keicher Elementary School in Michigan Center, MI made rainforest magnets and sold them for $1 each. They sold over 100 and donated it to PAA.
On Nov. 9, more than 4,000 letters from the Earth Day Tasmanian Rainforest Letter Drive were personally delivered to Gunns Ltd. Chairman John Gay at a big shareholder meeting with lots of media present. The television and newspapers all over Australia are talking about the letters, which call on Gunns to stop its destruction of Tasmania’s ancient forests. The letters have inspired wide support and huge protests! Click here to read more!
7th graders at Cheney Middle School in West Fargo, North Dakota held a poster drawing contest with the theme "I Speak for the Trees" to help think about what protecting the rainforest can mean for them on a personal level. The students in this photo are holding 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning posters. Great job!
The Earth Savers are protecting the rainforest one grocery bag at a time in Boulder Colorado. They met with the executives of the grocery store Wild Oats, presented their letters and mural that they painted, and asked that the store not carry bags provided by Weyerhaeuser, a company known for logging old growth forests. The Earth Savers also raised $264.24 for Protect-an-Acre by gathering old items from friends and family to sell (and by baking & selling cookies to sell too!).
The students of Mrs. Trichilo and Mr. Sottolano’s classes the Pocono Mountain School District/Clear Run Elementary Center created their very own rainforest by decorating the hallways of their school. The students spent the school day with all the plants, animals, and even the sounds of the rainforest. The kids were able to raise $374 for Protect-an-Acre by selling beach towels with pictures of frogs on them! The fourth grade students also participated in the Save the Western Gray Whales Letter Drive, sending in 97 letters!
Seattle high school students hand deliver 2,000 Earth Day letters from young people around the world asking Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel to stop destroying old-growth forests.
Ms. Paula Healey’s 1st grade students at Mill Hill Elementary School of Southport, CT raised $523 for Protect-an-Acre by doing chores at home to raise money to buy ice pops to sell at school for a “Save the Rainforest” fundraiser. The students also turned their classroom into a tropical rainforest, held a Rainforest Presentation for parents, created a Rainforest Trivia Challenge, and held lunch time screenings of RAN’s video, Forest Family Forever!, for the whole school!
Thanks to parent volunteers and students, the third grade hall in this New Jersey school was transformed into rainforest magic! Rainforest sounds played on a hidden CD player and a fog machine created mist when children entered in the morning.
Mr. Muldowney's First Grade class at Lancaster Primary School in Virginia, has been busy making 6 kapok trees to create a rainforest in their classroom! Each student researched a rainforest animal and discussed their animal with other students. They have gotten other classes involved in creating awareness about the rainforests and what students can do to help protect them, and they are now collecting change to donate to the Protect-An-Acre program at Rainforest Action Network.
Students at Alta Loma Middle School in South San Francisco, CA raised over $1,800 for the Protect-An-Acre program by collecting change. Students (from L-R) Derrick Gellidon, Chris Riessen, Patricia Janeczek, Chara-Lynn Aguiar, Arbel Bedak and Kerry McNab and their 8th grade science teacher Amy Goldman, organized this school-wide fundraiser called "Dimes Against Deforestation."
The second grade classes of Mrs. Linda Wong and Mrs. Selma Qu at Pacific Academy in Richmond, CA created a rainforest in their classroom and raised $100 for the Protect-An-Acre program by making their own "Rainforest Mix" and selling it to friends and relatives.
8th grade student Paul Leschuk did a project at his school to raise awareness about how people can make a positive difference to help save the rainforests. He held a walk-a-thon at his school and raised $518 for the Protect-an-Acre Program. Here he is shown next to an educational display he created for his project.
Pre-first at Pace Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, is saving the rainforest! As part of our recent study of the tropical rainforest we were able to raise $229 to send to the Rainforest Action Network. Each child eagerly contributed money earned by doing jobs at home. Our hard work saved over 4 acres of rainforest!
Karen Colbert and her 2nd grade class at Roosevelt Elementary School in Burlingame, California raised $150 for the Protect-An-Acre program by selling popcorn. The students used recycled bags and popped, bagged and distributed the popcorn themselves.
St James of the Valley School 4th graders in Cincinnati, OH had an amazing rainforest unit, using the Rainforests Forever! curriculum to do activities like decorating their school as a rainforest and setting up a Rainforest Café, which raised $257 for the Protect-an-Acre program.
The year's biggest production was a 4,000 square-foot virtual rainforest including live animals. The school closed for one week so that staff could create the interactive learning center. When children returned to school, they spent two weeks 'riding' down the Amazon, wrestling 'snakes', cleaning up a safari park, studying instruments in an African hut, dancing around a kapok tree and learning about recycling from Oscar the Grouch. Staff and children created artwork as they studied the many species that live in rainforests. Check it out here...