Mary Pope Osborne and Science

Mary Pope Osborne is loved among many children. She wrote the Magic Tree House Series. Our class has been reading some of her books, but with this Webquest, we will further our study on her book, Afternoon on the Amazon. We will take a look at animals that are in rainforests and even do a project!

For this project, you will be looking at different websites and reading about the different animals that live in rainforests. You will need to make a poster board about your favorite animal from the rainforest that we have covered.

Let's get started!

Step 1:

Choose ONE animal from the following list:

• Jaguar (Panther onca)
• African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)
• Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus)
• Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus)
• Nine-Banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcunctus)
• Ural Owl (Strix uralensis)
• Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus)

Step 2

Go to http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids/species-profiles and find your animal on the list then click on the name of the animal.

Step 3

Read about your animal and write down a few facts about it on a separate sheet of paper.

Step 4

For further reading, find your animal on the list and go to the link provided. Again, write down facts about your animal.

• Jaguar (Panther onca) http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/capybara
• African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/african-elephant.html
• Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ovenbird/lifehistory
• Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/green-anaconda/
• Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-eyed_Vireo/id
• Nine-Banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcunctus) http://www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Nine-Banded_Armadillo.asp
• Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) http://www.owlpages.com/owls/species.php?s=1760
• Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus) https://msu.edu/user/urquhart/rainforest/Content/Spectacled-Caiman.html

Step 5

Type out your facts on a Word document and save it, but leave space so you can cut out each fact. 

Step 6

Use the websites above to find pictures of your animal. Copy and paste the picture into a Word document and save your page.

Step 7

Get a poster board and write the name of your animal as your title.

Step 8

Print and cut out the pictures and facts.

Step 9

Glue the facts and picture onto the poster board.

Step 10

Feel free to decorate it however you like, but make sure it is NEAT! Bring the poster board to class and be able to give a few facts about your animal to the class.

I hope you enjoyed this extra little project! Animals are so fascinating to study! Think about it, you only looked up one species of animal from one place! Imagine how many places there are and how many animals are in the world! Now we will read Afternoon on the Amazon.