Yosemite National Park - Be A Junior Ranger (U.S. National Park Service)

Be a Junior Ranger (ages 7-13)!
You can become a Yosemite Junior Ranger by purchasing a self-guided booklet published by the Yosemite Association. This booklet is sold for $3.50 plus tax at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, Nature Center at Happy Isles (May through September), and Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center (June through September), and Wawona and Big Oak Flat Information Stations (May through September). In order to earn a Junior Ranger patch, the booklet must be completed, a bag of trash collected, and a guided program attended.

Be a Little Cub (ages 3-6)!
Yosemite has a program for YOU! Little Cubs is a self-guided booklet that encourages our young visitors and their families to discover Yosemite ’s wonders and to earn a Little Cubs button.This booklet (published by the Yosemite Association) is sold for $3 plus tax in the Nature Center at Happy Isles,Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Centers, and Wawona and Big Oak Flat Information Stations.

More Yosemite-related Links

Did you know Yosemite is a World Heritage Site? Learn more with the online World Heritage Junior Ranger program with its mascot Wally, the Wild Heritage Wolf.
Discover Yosemite, an interactive website with lots of information.

Junior Ranger Activities to Do from Home
To learn more about national parks, check out these offerings from the National Park Service:

KidsZone - Join in the fun at KidsZone where you can find many activities about your national parks. KidsZone includes WebRangers, Junior Rangers (including a looong list of parks offering Junior Ranger programs) and Park Fun & Activities. The last section includes activities at wild places across the country, including "Meet Your Wild Neighbors in Alaska."
WebRangers - Become a WebRanger online. Enjoy this national web-based program where you can learn about national parks all over the country! Play more than 50 games!
Junior Ranger Gazette - This journal includes fun facts, activities, and stories about the national parks.

Nature-based Online Activities for Kids

Get busy on the Enivronmental Protection Agency's "Climate Change Kids Site" webpage with explanations of weather and the greenhouse effect. Become a climate detective.
Act fast after you read the U.S. Department of Energy's "Kids Saving Energy" website. Learn how to start the saving process at home and find renewable energy sources. Go so far as to do a home energy audit.
Be a science sleuth in NASA's "For Kids Only: Earth Science" website. Study the land, water, air and natural hazards (like storms) to understand what's going on around you.
Take on the job of a "Natural Inquirer" and an "Investi-gator" in free science journals that highlights U.S. Forest Service science. The "Natural Inquirer" is made for middle-school students while the "Investi-gator" assists upper-elementary students. Each edition has lesson plans, word games, and correlations to National Science Education Standards.
Learn the scoop on "Science News for Kids" by a D.C. non-profit called the Society for Science & the Public--the publisher of Science News.
Get smart quick through three well-respected nature-based education programs: Project Wet, Project Wild and Project Learning Tree--often with free posters or CDs to help you learn.
A little on the intellectual side, "Explore Nature" or "Teaching with Historic Places" take you on a journey throughout the entire National Park Service.
Have your mom or dad help you sift through the "Education Internet Resources for Teachers" [317 kb PDF] for ideas on how to study park geology to historic places.