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> Teachers >
Treasures
> National
Parks Treasure Hunt
> Unit Outline
Activity
2:
Something Special to Me
Students
will continue the discussion from Activity One on the concept of
"value". Students will study maps to find items of value to citizens.
Class will create a KWL chart on national parks.
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Unit:
National Parks Treasure
Hunt
Guiding Questions:
Can groups of people
value something? Do places have value?
Critical Content:
Places can
be valued as well as items, and groups of people can value
something.
Grades: 3-6
Duration: Two 45
minute sessions
Group size: Whole
class, or optional: small groups of 4-6 students
Setting: classroom
Materials: Map of
the United States with national parks designated on it (see
Instructional Resources).
You may want to use a road atlas and divide up the states
among the students.
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Before
You Begin: Review your
discussion on treasures and values. Revisit the class definition
of these terms.
Procedures:
- Discuss the concept of a group of people valuing something.
Have the students give examples of items which groups of people
may value. Make a list of these items and categorize. (You may
want to break into small groups and have each group do this part
of the exercise. Then have the groups come together to share.)
What are the categories that were created? May suggest: items
that are old, items that are worth a lot of money, items that
aren't tangible such as ideas or democratic principles, items
that are special to families, etc.
- Where do people keep things they value? What about things that
groups of people value? Why do they keep them where they do?
- What is a museum? Why do we have them? Why did we create a
mini-museum in our classroom? What is in a museum? Are these things
of value? Why?
Do you or have you had a favorite place? Where is it and why is
it special? If you wanted to keep this favorite place special
for your children, how might you go about doing that?
How do you preserve something that doesn't fit into a museum?
How do you preserve a place? Can you preserve an historic event?
Can you preserve an historic person? Can you preserve an American
ideal?
- Have students look at state maps. Can they identify items on
the state maps which may signify something of value to citizens?
What are they and how do the students distinguish what they consider
to be of value? Are these places of value to just one person or
a group of people?
- *Make a brainstorm list of the items found. What do they have
in common? What is different about them?
- Focus on the parks specifically. What do parks contain? Create
a KWL chart (see below) of national parks on poster paper.
Column 1: What do we know about National Parks?
Column 2: What do we want to know about National Parks?
Column 3: What do we want to learn about National Parks?
- Your next activity will look more closely at National Parks.
You may want to tell students to think about which national park
they would like to research. Ideally, you will want students to
each choose a different national park. Homework: Decide on which
national park you would like to focus for our next activity.
Adaptations:
Download
information and photos from the Smithsonian Institute. Have students
discuss why these items are in the Smithsonian Institute? Do they
have value? Discuss. How would we preserve a place rather than an
item? Bring out photos of some National Parks. Why might we value
these places? What do they offer us? What are we protecting? You
may want to download specific information on various national parks
and put together some fact packets for students to use as a resource
for our next activity.
Extensions:
Have students do a web
search on national parks around the world. Do they have similarities
to U.S. National Parks? Do they have differences? What might this
tell us about people valuing places?
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