Of Giants and Grizzlies - FREE Curriculum Guides
Each free teacher guide, geared toward middle-grade students of California history and natural science, includes activities that engage and reinforce learning. These printable guides are content text-based (common core aligned) and encourage students to return to the reading material. Scroll down to read more about the subject material and activity content of each Sequoia 1-10 teacher guide.
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Once your free online request has been received by clicking "Add to Cart" and going through our checkout system, you will be presented with immediate links to all 10 individual pdf teacher guides, as well as a link to the complete collection - Sequoia 1-10 Teacher Guides (packaged in a zip file.) You will also receive an email with these individual links for future free use to unlimited downloads as needed.
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Sequoia 1. Living Fossils, Giants Of The Forest
Student Take-away: Discover more about Giant Trees growing in California for over 2000 years - Descendants of trees that lived among dinosaurs - Thick porous fire-resisting bark - Roots spread across equivalent of 2 football fields - Survivor of many fires - Symbiosis with creatures that scatter its seed. Activity: Pine tree seed search in student's community shows 2 types of cones, break apart and find the seeds.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 2. The California Grizzly Bear
Student Take-away: Concept of extinction with last of California Grizzly seen in Sequoia in 1920s, though top of food chain – Grasp that grizzly existed throughout state, coastal, valleys – in students own neighborhood. Learn about Native and pioneer encounters - today’s Montana rancher’s efforts to preserve grizzly. Activity: Size comparison, hands vs. paws. Students compare size of grizzly to self, capabilities of human hands vs. bear paws.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 3. Black Bears Versus One Tough Wolverine
Student Take-away: Unique primary source encounter told by first park superintendent, of a disagreement between black bears and wolverine. Demonstrates encounters absent of human intervention - Explores ranger efforts to protect people and bears - shows importance of human behavior in wild environment. Activity: Make plaster cast of animal tracks in your own yard. Includes casting mouse, rabbit, bird, dog or cat tracks. Recognizes wild things in students own yard or neighborhood.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 4. The Bug-Eating Plant In Huckleberry Meadow
Student Take-away: Experience multi-layered activities going on at same time in montane (wet) meadows – Bears/rodents feed on plants, plants thrive on rich soil, bees pollinate plants, birds & frogs feed on insects. See dragonflies, snakes and more, a plethora of life feeding life at the same time. Activity: (Supported by video of Harvard University dragonfly experiments) Draw a dragonfly - listed online sites show how to draw a dragonfly.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 5. The Pika, A Teensy-Weensy Rabbit
Student Take-away: See a tiny high mountain dwelling rabbit (pictures/video). Not usually seen, its presence expands expectations about the wild - It has a humorous fondness for humans’ shoelaces, lives in the open on rock piles, and is preyed upon by hawks and weasels - is considered for endangered species list – fosters discussion about climate change and its causes. Activity: Go stargazing at night. Encourages family/group activity.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 6. Mysterious Caves Inside The Mountains
Student Take-away: There is another world beneath student’s feet. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon, hundreds of caves hold fantastic formations; stalagmites, stalactites, cave pearls, soda straws and often marble walls - Featured crystal cave invites visitors - students can become “junior cavers.” Unique cave animals are protected. Insect eating bats use caves for daytime sleeping. Activity: Identify California National Parks with known bat populations. List provided. California maps online.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 7. The Dipper Bird That Walks Underwater
Student Take-away: The Dipper bird is found at fast-moving stream or river waterways in the national parks. These gray birds move quickly along the stream floor, catching larva and other insects - have a nictitating eyelid for underwater vision - constantly dip up and down when out of the water. Great songsters, these small creatures are important forest participants. Activity: Build your own Dipper Nest of paper mache’, balloon.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 8. Blazing Topknots
Student Take-away: Pileated Woodpeckers are a keystone species, important to other creatures. Large nest holes in old-growth forest areas are used later by other species. Woodpecker’s main food, carpenter ants are hunted on the forest floor, feeding themselves and other ant-eating species. Students learn that downed logs and leaf litter in old growth forests is essential. Activity: Record forest sounds in a wildlife area and create report of experience.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 9. A Circle Of Life
Student Take-away: This “gathering chapter” shows the ecological circle of life. Students see blue jays respond to a beetle infestation – how forest creatures balance each other. Learn of the loss of native population when people add non-native trout to mountain lakes, and of recovery when reversed by park personnel – more examples show how life feeds life in the forest. Activity: Grow your own tomato plants and experience the balance of nature.
Get links to All 10 FREE Curriculum Guides Here Sequoia 10. Walter Fry, A Curious Naturalist
Student Take-away: Highlights the efforts of first park superintendent, Walter Fry. His journals and “nature notes” depict early 1900s – His action to save giant trees from sawmills - tracked a grizzly - explored and named crystal cave - preserved native pictographs and much more. Contrasting videos show recent collecting of cones for a seed bank versus the 1940s lumbering of ancient trees. Activity: Create your own pictograph similar to those at Hospital Rock.
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