Distance Learning, Primary Sources, Student Activities

Symbolism in National Parks

Grade Level:
Lower Elementary: Pre-Kindergarten through Second Grade
Subject:
Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
State Standards:
2.RI.7 Explain how specific images contribute to and clarify a text.
2.RL.7 Use illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
2.RI.1
2.SL.5

Background

This lesson is intended to help teachers dicuss the history of how the National Park Service (NPS) came to use the symbol of the Arrowhead. It breaks down what the Arrowhead represents to the NPS, and how students can learn what resources the NPS protects from inferring meaning from the NPS symbols.
The activities included help students take their learning and apply it to their own lives by then drawing symbols that represent them. After students complete their own symbol, the class will come together and create one large class symbol comprised of aspects from each student's drawings.

Vocabulary

  • Symbol: A thing that represents or stands for something else.
  • Organic Act: The act signed by President Woodrow Wilson to establish the NPS for regulating use of Federal land.
  • Protect: To keep safe from harm or injury.
  • Preserve: To maintain something in its original or existing state.
  • Archaeological: The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.
  • Vegetation: Plants that are considered collectively.

Materials

Download Arrowhead Lesson Plan

Coloring sheet for students to draw their own symbol.

Download Worksheet

Last updated: March 6, 2023