NPS PHOTO

Students planting cuttings

Elementary school groups participating in STARS field trips will want to have a sound understanding of Glacier habitats, plant parts & life forms, plant life cycles and seasons, and human impacts to habitats before their field trip. After their field trip, groups will benefit by extending the learning experience with a lesson to review what they've learned.

Pre- and post-visit activities from the "Glacier National Park Spring and Fall Teacher's Guide" (a large file that might take awhile to download) include:

• Create A National Park, p. 28 - students create a mini-national park.
• Locating Glacier National Park, p. 30 - students locate and identify landmarks within and surrounding Glacier National Park.
• What is Wild?, p. 35 - students use guided imagery to take a trip to a "wild" place.
• Surviving in the Wild, p. 37 - students role play a day in the life of a pet animal think about why "wild" animals need "wild" places to live.
• What's that Habitat?, p. 49 - students identify their own basic habitat needs and generalize that wildlife and people have similar basic needs.
• Tree Parts, p. 52 - class discussion of tree parts and their function and then students construct small trees.
• Old Growth Forest Mural, p. 54 - students create a mural of an old growth forest.
• Forest Poems, p. 57 - students share their observations about the forest in a group activity and then write a poem.
• Meet A Tree, p. 59 - blindfolded pairs of students take turns exploring a tree.

NPS PHOTS

Bear at garbage can

Links to activities (some the same as those above) that are on-line on our website from our K-3 Glacier Teacher's Guide:
Unit One: You Are Here - This unit focuses on the geographic perspective of a child's world and the bigger world with Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (W-GIPP) included. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to K-3, Unit One.

• The Big Circle - students construct a grahic representation of themselves to the universe.
• My World - mapping my room, my yard, my schoolroom, and schoolyard.

Unit Two: My Home's in the Park -This unit provides and overview of Alberta and Montana wildlife. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to K-3, Unit Two.

• Who's Wild? - comparison of familiar domestic animals and wild animals of the park.
• Habitat is Home - components of habitat through art and video.
• Habitat Hunt - outside game finding food, water, shelter and space.
• Is there Room for Everybody? - habitat's relationship to carrying capacity.
• Who Eats Who? - classifying animals by their food sources.
• The Web of Life - food web game with pictures of plants and animals.

Unit Three: Rottenly Beautiful; Life & Death Cycles - Life, death and decomposition are the concepts covered in this unit. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to K-3, Unit Three.

• Garbage in the Garden -students study decomposition through composting.
• Life in a Log - hands-on examination of rotting logs.
• Changes at Log City - art and social studies look at death using the book Lifetimes.

NPS PHOTO

Oak ferns

Links to activities that are on-line on our website from our 4-6 Glacier Teacher's Guide:

Unit One: The Geography of Me - A geographic look at watersheds in the W-GIPP. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to 4-6, Unit One.

• You Are Here – mapping play places and fitting them into the W-GIPP watershed context .

Unit Three: Our Medicine, Our Food (from Work House)- Native American Plant lore and use. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to 4-6, Unit Three.

• Who Says Plants Can’t Move? – plant dispersal and ecology.
• Native Harvest – research and construction of illustrated book on Native plant uses.
• What’s in a Name? – bilingual approach to the meaning of plant names.
• Forest Communities – making a class book on tree identification.

Unit Six: Skyscrapers: Cities in the Old Growth – studies in old growth forest. Click here for teacher background information and the introduction to 4-6, Unit Six.

• Mature Forest Mime – vocabulary charades game.
• Trees: the Inside Story – 3D art project on parts of trees.
• Old Growth Forest Mural – components of old growth forests and related conservation issues.
• Eco-enrichers – classroom study on role of earthworms.
• Build a Tree – creative dramatics exercise on tree growth.
• Up the Down Tree House – role play of life, death and decomposition in the forest.
• Forest Poetry – exercise making a group poem.
• Meet a Tree – observation and memory exercise on individual characteristics of trees.

Helen Seay Drawing

Douglas fir branch

Coloring Books and Other Materials:

Background Information for Teachers and Students about Glacier Habitats and Plants can be found at our Nature and Science link.

You can download pictures of Glacier plants and animals on our Coloring and Alphabet Books page.

Want to plant a native garden at your school? Need more information about native plants in Montana and more lesson ideas? Check out the Montana Native Plant Society website.