📖 Readings

Rain forests are warm, wet forests. They are in countries near the Equator: in Central America, South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Rain forests are important. They're homes for millions of animals and plants. The plants in rain forests make much of the oxygen that people in the world need to live.

A rain forest has four parts:

Emergent

In this part, you can see the tops of very tall trees. They are sometimes 60 meters (200 feet) tall! Many different birds, butterflies, and other insects live here.

Canopy

In this part of the forest, the trees have many leaves. Birds, spiders, tree frogs, monkeys, and snakes live here.

Understory

In this part of the forest, it is dark, wet, and cool. There aren't many plants. Why? Because plants need light to live. Snakes and lizards live here. Jaguars like to live in this part, too!

Forest floor

In this part, there are many insects and spiders. Some spiders are as big as plates! There are many large animals. And people live here, too!

Millions of children around the world eat lunch at school. Some bring their lunch from home. Others eat food that the school makes for them. Schools in different countries make different kinds of lunches.

In France, children eat together in a cafeteria. They have a big lunch because they don't eat snacks in the morning. Sometimes they eat fish or sausages, with vegetables or salad. Then they may have fruit or a piece of cake.

In Japan, children usually eat their lunch in the classroom. They eat soup, rice or noodles, fish and vegetables. They drink milk, too. After lunch, all the children work together to clean the classroom.

In Brazil, children may eat rice and beans, salad, and cooked vegetables or meat for lunch. And sometimes they eat fruit, as well.

In Russia, children eat vegetable soup and fish or meat with bread. One delicious soup, called borscht, is made with dark red vegetables called beets.