Learning Outcome

Students will be able to describe the four general habitat layers of a

Washington forest and identify some of the animals which inhabit each layer.

Learning Procedure

What Makes a Forest? Brainstorm together and list on the board as

many components of a forest (excluding animals) as students can name. The

list will probably include many of the following:

large trees (species depends on location)

groundcover plants, grasses

small trees

leaf litter (fallen needles & leaves)

snags (standing dead trees)

fungi (both aboveground fruiting

bodies mushrooms, etc., — and

underground mycelia)

fallen logs

stones

bushes

streams (from small creeks to major rivers)

flowers

roots and burrows

ferns, liverworts, lichens and mosses

soil

Make a Forest Mural: Create a class mural of an eastern or western

Washington forest using butcher paper, colored chalk, crayons or collage

materials. Divide students into groups of two or three, and give each group

a strip of butcher paper about two feet wide and three feet tall. Have students

pencil a horizontal line six inches from the bottom of their strip to represent

the level of the forest floor.  Strips will look like this:

2’

 

3’

4