Teacher and Homeschool Resources
Your students will enjoy learning about river life and watersheds with these fun activities!
Please consider visiting some of the local green spaces in our watershed to support student understanding and to help them make connections with what they are learning!
Ladybug Life Cycles from Kids Gardening
Grade Level: K-2, 3-5
Location(s): Indoor, Outdoor
Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Lesson Plan 1 - Green Green
Green Green: A Community Gardening Story
Lesson Plan 2 - Seeds
Adaptable Lesson Plan for Grades 3-5
The Nature Dads – Sustainability and Wellness
The Nature Dads Native Plant Party game is a fun way for kids to learn about native plants and the wildlife they support.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center teacher resources
Webinars for teachers, and curriculum for ages Pre-K through 6th grade
DIY Dandelion Detective Toolkit
A Pollination Community Science Program – at OSU.edu
Looking for some books about trees?
Virtual Field Trips
From the Nature Conservancy – “designed for ages 9-15 but customizable for all ages, virtual field trips allow students to travel the world and explore natural environments without leaving the classroom. Each virtual field trip contains a video, teacher guide, and student activities.”
SWIFTlets for SCIENCE STANDARDS:
Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District’s SWIFTlets have been created to enhance at-home learning and exploration.
NEEF Prairie habitat toolkit
The Native Schoolyards Toolkit: Prairie Habitat focuses on how to initiate and implement native habitat or outdoor classroom projects at schools, with an emphasis on NEEF’s Greening STEM initiative. Visit NEEF’s grant page for info on community grant programs.
Climate Superstars
Climate Superstars is a set of learning activities that align with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and take roughly 15-20 minutes to complete. They’re easy to fit into your daily schedule as a fun complement to your lesson plans and can be performed online or in person.
Free Watershed Curriculum That Inspires Environmental Action
From the Stroud Water Research Center: Help your students understand watershed concepts and make a positive impact on their local environment with the free standards-aligned Shared Waters curriculum. Designed for students in grades 3 through 6, the 10-lesson curriculum is classroom-tested and incorporates many Stroud Water Research Center resources.
NEEF Environmental Education Resources: Lesson 1 – Watershed Basics
The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is the nation’s leading organization in lifelong environmental learning, creating opportunities for people to experience and learn about the environment in ways that improve their lives and the health of the planet. This lesson is just one of many resources on their website.