Teaching Tools - Western National Parks Association

Teaching Tools

National Parks: America’s Largest Classroom

National parks provide a wealth of educational opportunities in science, math, writing, reading, history, social studies, and more. Western National Parks Association partners with the National Park Service (NPS) to provide materials and activities that K-12 teachers can use to enrich their students’ education.

Junior Ranger Booklets

Online activity books focus on exploring fascinating topics using national parks as a resource. Youngsters can work toward Junior Ranger badges in spaceflight, caves, fishing, archeology, astronomy, paleontology, and the underwater world.
View Booklets

WNPA Videos

Our library of online videos introduces students to partnering parks that WNPA supports.

Watch Videos

Books

Add children’s books to your classroom library. The 101 Questions and Frequently Asked Questions series engage budding scientists. Preschoolers will love the finger puppet books introducing a variety of animals.
Shop Children’s Books

Watch this video with your students and share some fun facts about bats, butterflies, hummingbirds, and saguaros.

National Park Stories

National park lovers have shared their stories about their experiences with these American treasures. Read them to your students, then encourage them to submit their own tale.
NPS Online Resources

The National Park Service has thousands of teacher tools, including lesson plans, classroom materials, field experiences, and more. They’re organized by national park location, subject, and grade range.

Classroom Supplies

Delight your students with stickers, tokens, postcards, and other collectibles that honor our national parks. They come with pictures of individual parks, as well as Smokey Bear and Junior Ranger badges.

The editors of the book–America’s Largest Classroom: What We Learn from Our National Parks–received the Stewart L. Udall Award from WNPA. The book examines educational and interpretive programs in national parks and addresses powerful, experiential learning of STEM, social studies, history, and culture and emphasizes inclusivity and reaching more diverse groups of students and educators.

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What We Do
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Junior Ranger Program Helps Naomie Both Academically and Personally
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Funds At Work