National Parks Activity Pack: Maps, Reading, Puzzles & Ranger Jobs

Take your class on a ranger-led tour of America's national parks without leaving the classroom. This 30-page National Parks Activity Pack for Grades 3 to 5 mixes short reading passages with map work, puzzles, and a look at ranger jobs, so it can fill a week of science and social studies centers or serve as a ready-made sub plan.

Students start by labeling a simplified map of famous parks, from Acadia in the east to Olympic in the west, and from Everglades in the south to the parks of the far north. Short reading passages introduce Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the world's first national park, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and the Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited park in the country, along with the founding of the National Park Service in 1916. Comprehension questions follow each passage, and a ranger-jobs page shows what rangers actually do, from guiding visitors to protecting wildlife.

A twelve-word word search, a twelve-word crossword, a true-or-false page, and a ten-question quiz check what students remember, and a design-your-own-park project lets them plan trails, a visitor center, and a ranger station of their own. Complete answer keys cover every keyed activity, including the solved word search grid and crossword. Print-and-go on US Letter paper, black-and-white friendly, with nothing pre-filled on the student pages, it fits geography units, Earth science, reading centers, and sub plans.