Pose the following question to students, “What do endangered orangutans have to do with the cookies your family buys at the grocery store?” Allow students to Think-Pair-Share with a partner. Write some student responses on the board. As a class, generate a What do we need to know? and How do we find out? list to answer the question. After, divide students into small groups of 4 or 5 and give each group a different brand of cookie packaging. Have them read the label for ingredients and discuss what each ingredient could be and where it came from. Go through the ingredients to see if any of them could come from rainforests? Project an image of a healthy rainforest and ask students to See-Think-Wonder about resources that come from the rain forest's natural resources. Each student should have 3 post-it notes and place their thoughts in the appropriate column under the picture.

Discuss what is a rainforest and where are they located. Using Google Earth (load software prior to lesson), identify locations on the map using the Bright Links projector.  Ask students to Think-Pair-Share with a partner why they think rainforests are “special”. Have one partner share the other partner's answer. Using Google Maps Engine Lite students will pin the location of rainforests on the map. Read Nature’s Green Umbrella: Tropical Rainforests by Gail Gibbons. Add new vocabulary words to the class anchor chart. Discuss as a class anything new they learned from the story and then give each student the Tropical Treasure Hunt. Have student’s complete questions 1, 2, and 5 on with a partner.

Visit the website Kids Saving the Rainforest so students can see some of the work that is being done to save rainforests in Costa Rica and possible ways they can take action globally such as adopting a mango tree, sponsoring a monkey, or donating their birthday money. Students will use the DeforestACTION Collaboration Centre via tigweb.org website to read blogs by Eco Warriors (combatting deforestation) and watch live video feed of rainforests (EarthWatchers) to gather ideas.

Day 2

Independently, students need to come up with as many words as they can that come to mind when they think of the word rainforest. Students will create a Wordle document as their own personal anchor chart. Create a class anchor chart and add learned vocabulary as you proceed through the unit.

Students will explore the causes of deforestation around the world. In groups of 4, students will use the Kids and Conservation blog to research four different reasons for deforestation:  logging, mining, cattle ranching, and agriculture: cash crops. Students will use a graphic organizer to collect their information. Each member must learn their information because those groups will be split into a group that has all four deforestation reasons and each member must teach the other members about what they learned. Students will create a poster or slideshow to demonstrate their new knowledge.

Ask the compelling question that was posed at the beginning of the unit to the class, “What do endangered orangutans have to do with the cookies your family buys at the grocery store?” Have their answers changed or suggestions become clearer? Students will be introduced to another reason for deforestation by watching a video on the Sumatran orangutans that are on the brink of extinction due to palm oil harvesting. Ask students if they know what palm oil is and what it is used for. Use the website Deforestation Education to learn more about deforestation, palm oil, and animals affected by palm oil harvesting. Using a 3-2-1 exit ticket, students will state three new things they learned, two “ah-ha’s” that came to mind, and one big question they still have.

Day 3

Have students take out their empty food wrapper or box and peruse the ingredient list looking for palm oil. Scroll through the Products that Contain Palm Oil link from the Deforestation Education website looking for palm oil derivative names. Have a few read the ingredients on their packaging to see if any have the word palm oil or its derivatives.  Then look at the website to see if any of the students’ favorite food items are listed. Now ask “What do endangered orangutans have to do with the cookies your family buys at the grocery store?” to students to see if they are able to make a connection. If not, help them to recognize that the products we consume may support deforestation because they contain palm oil and the need for palm oil means cutting and burning down the habitats of wildlife such as orangutans. Introduce the vocabulary word sustainability and discuss that harvesting of palm oil can be done in a wise and not wise manner. Look at the list again, see which products are produced sustainably and not sustainably and what they think it means to be eco-friendly (add to vocabulary chart). Have students create a flyer summarizing the lesson (connection between trees, palm oil, orangutans, and food) using canva.org, a website that allows you to click and drag images and place text on a digital canvas. 

Have students find the ingredient list on all the packages they brought in. They should highlight the palm oil ingredients or its derivatives and glue it to their individual collages entitled “Are you Supporting Deforestation? If so...STOP!” Each collage should be placed outside the classroom in the hallway when complete. Students will complete the final task of the Tropical Treasure Hunt worksheet by writing a speech (in the voice of the animal they choose) telling adults about the forest destruction and ways they are affected

Day 4

Students will use either create a Glog using Glogster or a Prezi to create a digital scrapbook/presentation to summarize their learning. Based on the amount of time it may take for students to navigate this site and feel comfortable this part of the lesson can be extended to three days. Students must include a definition of deforestation, five reasons for deforestation and where it is happening, who is affected, the palm oil connection (with names of real products), provide two conservation efforts being used, and two steps that they will take to stop deforestation locally and globally in a way that is meaningful to them (see rubric).

Day 5

Watch the Magic School Bus: In the Rainforest video and discuss the accuracy of the television show to the information they researched. Read the story The Rainforest Grew all Around Them by Susan Mitchell. Give students the recipe for Rainforest cookies to share with their families or make the cookies in class (depending on school’s food policy).