By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

The cold N.J. weather loosened its grip during the winter months as the fourth graders in St. Rose Grammar School created a rainforest café in their Belmar classrooms.  The students of teachers Mary Pat Carroll and Karen Sullivan completed a months-long unit on ecosystems, then shared their knowledge and enthusiasm with their parents and the peers.

Students dressed as rainforest creatures greeted visitors to the sound of roars, hoots, whistles and the rustling of rain sticks. Hanging sloths, vines and food chains towered overhead, and visitors dined on iguana egg salad, toucan tuna and sloth salad as they moved throughout the exhibit. Tables bearing maps, water cycle drawings, menus and medicine reports illustrated what the students had learned.

“The students experienced hands-on learning by researching and creating projects, both individually and in groups,” noted Carroll.

The cross-curricular project included elements of language arts, science, Spanish, art, music and religion. Protest signs decrying logging and deforestation shared space with a prayer to save the rainforest, and the students performed and videoed a song with lyrics detailing the names of the rainforest denizens and the amount of rain which fell within that ecosystem yearly.

“This is a creative way to keep the kids engaged on the topic and to truly absorb what they are learning. We have had great success with it and the students love the activities,” said Sullivan.

See TrentonMonitor.com for additional photos and a video of the rainforest song.