Teaching Day-by-Day: America the Beautiful

Week One - Asking questions
1. Make a KWHL chart in four columns on a large piece or chart or butcher paper. In the K column, make a list of all the things your students know about national parks.
2. Fill in the W and H sections of the chart by asking students to think of things they want to know about our national parks. Write their questions in the W column (adding your own) and write how they can find their answers in the H column.
3. Categorize questions and assign pairs of students to find answers and report back to the class. Encourage students to include any other relevant or interesting information they find when they begin their research next week.

Week Two - Gathering information



4. Go to www.nps.gov (The National Park Service) and under "Information," click on "Info Zone" and "Mission of NPS" to read with your class about the mission and reasons for national parks. Browse the "Learn NPS" section which is meant for teachers and students.
5. Use a search engine to show your class how to visit The National Park Foundation (www.nationalparks.org) for more background information on national parks and answers to students' questions.
6. Ask the library media specialist to gather books for your class on national parks and help them access the websites to find the answers to their questions.
7. Hold a Share and Tell and have student pairs report to the class they found. Ask them to write their information on the KWHL chart in the H and L columns. What new questions do students have now?
8. Have students survey their families as well as other teachers and staff members to find out who may have visited a national park recently. Invite a visitor to talk to your students and share pictures of their experience.
9. For an A-Z list of national parks, go to www.us-national-parks.net Browse the website and show students how they can learn about specific parks and then plan a trip to any of these parks.
10. Write each park name from yesterday's website on a slip of paper and put the slips in a bag. Have each student draw one or two parks to research. Brainstorm things to find out about each park (location, facilities, animals, hours of operation, directions, etc.)

Week Three - Looking closely



11. Learn about park fees and how to purchase a Golden Eagle Pass and Golden Age Passport at www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm Help students figure out why the Golden Eagle is used, who is eligible and advantages of the passes.
12. On a large relief map of the U.S., have students locate each of the parks they'll study and label each with a colored pin and flag on which students have printed their park's name.
13. Notice where most pins are located on the relief map. Encourage students to notice the topography of the areas where many parks are located and hypothesize some reasons for this.
14. Use the mileage scale chart on the bottom of the map to show students how to estimate distance. Find your location and have each student measure the distance between it and the park they are researching. Which parks are farthest away? Which are the closest?
15. Go to www.georgetownwaterfrontpark.org to introduce your class to what will soon be the newest national park. Listen to the audio portion and ask students what they think the main activities will be. Be sure to also learn how to become a Park Partner on this site.
16. To discover the criteria for an area to become a national park, visit www.nps.gov/legacy and discuss with your class whether or not a location near your community meets the qualifications to become a park.
17. Read a biography of the person responsible for many of our national parks. Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman (Houghton Mifflin, 1992) is a wonderful book for helping students better understand the history of our parks system.

Week Four - Digging deeper



18. See 40 color photographs of the Bears of Yellowstone (grizzlies and black bears fishing and traveling through their habitats with their cubs) when your class visits www.windowsintowonderland.org/bears
19. Take your students on one (or all) of several electronic field trips to various national parks at www.windowsintowonderland.org/index.htm
20. Visit the website of www.scouting.org.za/songs and choose a camp song to sing with your class or ask your music teacher to teach a song to your class.
21. Help students create new song lyrics to accompany one of the camp songs they have learned to sing.
22. Music accompanies the lyrics for "America the Beautiful" at www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/americathebeautiful.html so you and your students can sing the song together. Help your class analyze the lyrics and attach meaning to them.
23. Read a book like Park Rangers by Meredith Costain (Econo-Clad, 1999) to your students to help them learn what the job of a park ranger is all about. Brainstorm other jobs that are available at state and national parks and what they might involve.
24. Use a search engine to find names of the state parks in your state. On a map of your state, have students locate each one with a pin and flag. Are there any close to your school? If so, arrange a field trip!

Week Five - Finishing up



25. Brainstorm a list of things a family might need to go camping. Listen to students who have gone camping and ask them to share funny and/or interesting stories about their camping trip.
26. Make s'mores for your students to recreate everyone's favorite camping food! Melt a square of chocolate bar and a marshmallow between two graham crackers using a microwave oven in the cafeteria kitchen or teachers' room.
27. Plan a day at a national park with your students for a family of four. Using the info they collected on the park they studied, have students decide on how they'll get there, how much it will cost, what to do when they get there, what to pack, etc. Have students share in triads.
28. Have students create an advertisement (by hand or using a software program) for the national parks they have researched this month.
29. Hold a "Park Party" and invite another class to hear your students share the ads they created yesterday on the parks they researched.
30. Look back at the KWHL chart you made earlier this month. Reread what is on the chart first and then, in the L column, write any new information the class has learned.

31. Have the students make a prediction and write a short paragraph about where the next national park might be located and why they think so. Ask them to read their predictions out loud to the class.

Karen Bromley is a Professor of Literacy in the School of Education and Human Development at Binghamton University in Binghamton, NY where she teaches graduate courses in literacy, language arts and children's literature.

January, 2004, Vol.34, No.4