Year 5 South America: why does the Amazon matter? worksheet

“Rainforests in Hot and Cool Places” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 geography unit “South America: why does the Amazon matter?”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 11 to 18 of the year, 8 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Rainforests in Hot and Cool Places

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · Geography · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can explain why tropical and temperate rainforests have different climates.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which compass point is opposite north?
southeastwest
2.
This circle is a plan of a made-up park. The shaded part is woodland. What fraction of the park is woodland?
one halfone quarterthree quarters
3.
Write the sign: 27 11. Which is bigger?

B Watch me, then you4 min

Manaus, in a tropical rainforest in Brazil, averages 27°C. Haast, in a temperate rainforest in New Zealand, averages 11°C. How much warmer is Manaus?

Watch me

Manaus is 27°C. Haast is 11°C.

27 - 11 = 16

Manaus is 16°C warmer than Haast.

Now you

1.
Lowmoor, a made-up town, averages 14°C. How much warmer is Manaus than Lowmoor?

C Your turn6 min

Two kinds of rainforest are on this sheet. Use the clues on this page to answer each question.

Sunlit tropical forest canopy seen from above

1.
Which place is nearer the Equator: Haast or Manaus? Circle one.
HaastManaus
2.
Crinan Woods is a rainforest in Scotland. Write each place in the right column.
ManausHaastCrinan Woods
Tropical rainforest Temperate rainforest
3.
Scotland has a rainforest. Is it tropical or temperate?
tropicaltemperate
4.
Why is Manaus hotter than Haast?
it is closer to the Equatorit is further from the Equatorit is higher up a mountain

Say it out loud: Which clue in each question told you the answer?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A mossy oak woodland on a Scottish hillside, covered in ferns

Ravi says: “Rainforests only grow close to the Equator, so Scotland cannot have one.”

1.
Write one place that shows Ravi is wrong, and say what kind of rainforest it is.

E Think deeper4 min

Rainforests are found in hot places and cool places. Use the lesson to explain why.

A wide river winding through tall tropical trees with hanging vines

1.
Name one rainforest from this lesson. Say whether it is tropical or temperate, and explain why its climate is like that. Write your answer on the lines below.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Rainforests in Hot and Cool Places · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. south If your child says east, they may be thinking of a turn, not the opposite point. Ask them to face north, then turn all the way round.

2. one half

3. > If your child writes <, ask them to read each number aloud. The bigger number has more tens, so it goes on the open side of the sign.

B

1. 13 If your child writes 41, they added 27 and 14. Ask them to find the gap between the two bars, which means taking the smaller from the bigger.

C

1. Manaus If your child circles Haast, ask which place gets more direct sunlight all year round, and which one lies closer to the Equator.

2. Tropical rainforest: Manaus · Temperate rainforest: Haast, Crinan Woods

3. temperate If your child says tropical, they may think all rainforests are hot. Ask them how far Scotland is from the Equator.

4. it is closer to the Equator If your child picks further from the Equator, they may have the distance backwards. Ask which place gets more direct sunlight.

D

1. Look for: Crinan Woods or Haast (or Norway or Canada), named as a temperate rainforest far from the Equator. If your child names the Amazon, that is a tropical rainforest, so it does not show Ravi is wrong. Ask: is that place far from the Equator?

E

1. Look for: A named rainforest, labelled tropical or temperate, with a reason linked to its distance from the Equator.

Words to use

Say“Find the Equator on the map first. Is this place near it, or far from it? What does that do to the temperature?”

Instead of“Rainforests are always hot, so the cool ones must be wrong.”

After the sheet

Use a world map or globe. Find the Equator, then find Scotland and Brazil. Ask which one is closer to the Equator.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

7 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Where is the Amazon?(with a plan)
Layers of the rainforest(with a plan)
Where our food grows(with a plan)
A Brazil nut chain(with a plan)
Who lives in the Amazon?(with a plan)
Weighing up the Amazon(with a plan)
Protecting our rainforests(with a plan)

Every Year 5 geography worksheet

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