Trekking Through the Rainforest...

I have been working with Year 4, Ms Riddall, Ms Eros, Giles and Joe on creating a rainforest in the heart of White House School.

With me, the class have been exploring the different levels in a rainforest. We have looked at the very top level where tall emergent trees grow up above the rest of the forest canopy. We have looked at the mid-level of the forest canopy itself and some of the epiphytes (air plants) and lianas (climbing plants) that grow on the trees there. And we have looked at the forest floor where only 2% of the sunlight reaches, where the trees have their great buttress roots to anchor them to the ground and fungi and other strange plants grow.

The class has worked in 5 teams and each team has made ‘pictures’ of the three levels in the rainforest using only their bodies to create the plants growing at each level. On the sharing day when Year 4’s classroom will have been transformed into a rainforest, (Giles is constructing it with the class and also making an animation to be shown in the room, Joe is creating a soundscape for it), the teams will enter their rainforest and silently, softly ‘become’ the rainforest.

We have also worked on some different animal movements ready for Giles to film this week and make into the animation. We have a collection of panthers, tigers, birds, gorillas, frogs, lizards and more to bring the rainforest to life.

Everyone has really pulled together and worked very hard to create our rainforest and we are all excited about sharing it with the rest of the school and parents. We hope that everyone will enjoy entering into another world when they visit Year 4’s classroom on Friday.

Amanda (Choreographer)