Temperate forests grow in regions with seasonal changes and enough moisture to support trees. They may be deciduous, evergreen, or mixed, and include habitats ranging from oak woodlands to rainy conifer forests. Their plants and animals respond to changes in daylight, temperature, and food availability.
Use the books, printables, experiments, and hands-on activities below to plan a temperate forest unit study. The background facts help children compare trees, forest wildlife, and seasonal adaptations.
Curriculum Resources for the Temperate Forest Biome
- In the Forest Phonological Awareness Pack Forest-themed phonological and phonemic awareness: rhymes, syllables, beginning, middle, and ending sounds, and more!
- In the Forest Preschool Pack Work on various early learning skills including matching, counting, fine motor skills, and more.
- Forest Animals 3-Part Cards Use these 3-part cards of 14 forest creatures for vocabulary development. This pack also includes blacklines so children can make their own little booklets!
- Plus, be sure to grab these free printables from the Trillium Resource Library:
- Animals of North America 3-Part Cards (many of the animals in this printable set are forest biome residents)
- Common Birds 3-Part Cards (lots of forest biome residents in this set too!)
- Parts of a Tree 3-Part Cards
Temperate Forest Books and Materials
- Woodland Animals Puzzle from Mirus Toys – realistic illustrations, large pieces, and bonus information about animal tracks make this puzzle appealing to a range of ages in your class.
- Leaf Rubbing Plates from Montessori Services – includes 16 tree/leaf varieties. These are fun to use with rectangular crayons or with thick chunky crayons with the wrappers peeled off.
- Match a Leaf Memory Game Use the included booklet to create control charts for these tree and leaf pairs.
- Whose Tracks are These? This picture book offers clues to help children guess which animal left tracks in the forest.
- Listen to The Language of the Trees uses an illustrated story to introduce tree roots and fungi. With older students, distinguish the story’s personification from scientific evidence: fungi can connect roots, but claims that trees deliberately speak or share resources to help one another go beyond what is established.
Temperate Forest Printables from Around the Web
- Forest Animal Montessori Grammar Activities from Welcome to Mommyhood – a beautiful low-cost option for grammar practice with a forest focus. This post has a link to the printable pack plus some great photos of this material assembled and in action.
- Deciduous and Coniferous Trees Sorting Activity from I Believe in Montessori – full-color photographs featuring deciduous and coniferous trees from around the world.
- Forest Animal Art Appreciation Printable Activity from Living Montessori Now – these printables can be used for art appreciation, handwriting practice, and more.
Crafts and Hands-On Activities
- How Water Travels Through Leaves Experiment from Buggy and Buddy – this experiment uses colored water to highlight the movement of water through the leaves of plants.
- Tissue Paper Tree Collages from Where Imagination Grows – set up on a tray, this would make a nice one-person art activity for your fine motor shelf. The projects could be displayed as a temporary “class forest” before sending them home.
- Pine Cone Bird Feeders from Fireflies and Mud Pies – a classic forest-themed activity. Many of you likely made these yourselves as children with peanut butter and bird seed! This post has helpful tips for adapting the project if folks in your group have nut allergies.
- Pine Cone Science from Play Dough to Plato – do you live in an area with lots of pine cones? This post shares a simple yet fascinating demonstration about why pine cones are sometimes spread open and sometimes closed tightly!
About the Temperate Forest Biome
What is a Biome? A biome is a large region characterized by a specific type of climate, vegetation, and animal life. Wetlands, grasslands, rainforests, and deserts are all examples of biomes. Learning about biomes can help us understand the ways that different plants and animals depend on each other.
Temperate forests experience seasonal changes, but their temperature and rainfall vary by region. Some have cold, snowy winters; coastal temperate rainforests can be milder and much wetter. One summer temperature or rainfall range does not describe every temperate forest.
Temperate forests include a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees.
- Pine and spruce needles are leaves. Most of these trees retain needles through winter and can photosynthesize when light, temperature, and water conditions permit. Some conifers, such as larches, are deciduous and shed their needles seasonally.
- In contrast, the leaves of deciduous trees change colors and fall off in the fall season. This happens because the leaves of deciduous trees stop producing chlorophyll, the pigment that gives leaves their green color.
The temperate forest biome is also home to a variety of plants such as ferns, wildflowers, and mosses. These plants provide food and shelter for a diverse range of animal species, including black bears, deer, moose, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, and many birds such as owls, hawks, and woodpeckers.
The Temperate Forest Biome: Fun Facts for Kids
- Great Basin bristlecone pines are among the longest-lived individual trees, with some more than 4,000 years old. They grow in high-elevation western North American woodlands, where cold and dry conditions limit growth.
- The temperate forest biome is home to the second largest land mammal in North America – the moose. (Curious about which animal is the largest land animal in North America? It’s the bison!)
- The Virginia opossum is the only native marsupial found north of Mexico. Other opossum species live farther south, including in Mexico and Central America.
- Many eastern North American monarch butterflies migrate to mountain forests in central Mexico. Western populations use different wintering areas, including coastal California, and not all monarch populations migrate.
- The aspen tree, which is found in the temperate forest biome of North America, reproduces by sending up new shoots from its extensive root system, creating large groves of genetically identical trees.
- The Siberian tiger, the world’s largest cat – weighing over 600 pounds! – lives in Asia’s temperate forests.
- Gray squirrels use strong hind legs, sharp claws, and a balancing tail to move between branches. They also store nuts and seeds, some of which later grow into trees.
- The sugar maple, a tree in the temperate forests of North America, is the primary source of maple syrup production.
- The white-tailed deer, common in the temperate forest biome, can run up to 30 mph.
- The redwood tree, found in North America’s temperate forests, can live for thousands of years and even survive wildfires.