Online Junior Ranger Ages 4-7

View of the Grand Canyon

NPS

 

 

Complete the following four activities to earn your Online Junior Ranger Badge.

 

Activity 1: Teamwork in the Natural World

Part 1: Listen to Ranger Lori explain the importance of teamwork between several animals and plants. Choose one example from the video and draw out the interaction between the two living things.

 

• 

  Teamwork in the Natural World

  In the natural world, when plants and animals benefit each other we call it a symbiotic relationship. (This video has open captions)

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 53 seconds

 

Part 2: Do one of the following:

• Go outside and look for an example of an interaction between animals, plants or their environment (for example: a bird using a tree, a bee visiting a flower, an ant carrying part of a leaf, or other such interaction)

• Or, watch this video of bees on a plant called Utah Agave. What are the bees doing? How might the bees be helping themselves and helping the agave?

 

• 

  Carpenter Bees on a Utah Agave

  The Utah Agave (Agave utahensis) spends most of its life as a rosette base of fleshy leaves, with spines along their sides--a quintessential icon of the Southwest. After several years, sometimes decades, they finally bloom (hence the origin of the common name for the genus, the "century plant"). The Utah Agave is monocarpic, meaning it dies after only flowering once. So take a "Minute Out In It" to watch a gathering of Carpenter bees rejoice in this impressive agave's one and only time to shine!

  Duration:

  1 minute, 14 seconds

 

Activity 2: Geology

Part 1: Watch the following video and do the rockarena dance with Ranger Andy and the Grand Canyon School 3rd grade class!

 

• 

  Grand Canyon Rockarena Dance

  Here's a fun, exciting way to help kids remember how the Grand Canyon was formed. Today, the Grand Canyon Elementary School third graders are with me, and they're going to help you learn the Grand Canyon Dance, the Grand Canyon "Rockarena." This is a dance to help you remember, to help you learn, how Grand Canyon was formed.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 50 seconds

 

Part 2: Grand Canyon has many colorful rock layers that tell us stories of Earth’s history long ago. In those rocks are fossils, which are the remains of fascinating plants and animal that lived a long time ago on our planet.

Listen to rangers Tarryn and Rachel describe these colorful rock layers and the fossils found in them.

After watching the video, do one of the following:

• Go outside and look for three different colors of rocks near your home, then describe what they look like and how they feel

• Search online for one type of fossil found in the rocks near your home; what kind of fossil is it and what kind of environment do you think it lived in?

• Pause the video during an image of Grand Canyon, or find a picture of Grand Canyon, and draw it, include the colors of the rocks, the cliffs and other canyon features you see

 

• 

  Canyon Field School: Geology Video

  An introduction to the ancient environments, fossils, geologic timelines, and rock layers of Grand Canyon.

  Duration:

  5 minutes, 50 seconds

 

Activity 3: Grand Canyon and the Night Sky

 

A visitor enjoying Grand Canyon’s starry skies

NPS Photo

Grand Canyon is an International Dark Sky Park, meaning the park is working to protect views of the night sky so visitors can gaze up at the millions of stars.

Part 1: Each year, the park has a Star Party in June, in which visitors can learn about the stars and look through telescopes at planets and galaxies. Visitors are asked to tell us their experience of seeing so many stars. Two visitors, Trevor and Mary, describe in this video how they felt seeing Grand Canyon’s night sky.

Part 2: Now it’s your turn to explore the night sky. You can either use the picture below or, if you can, go outside where you live and look up at the night sky. Notice how many stars you can see, or maybe you can see the Moon. In the city, you may only see a few stars, in the country you may see a lot.

• What do you notice about the stars? Are there differences between them? What do you wonder about?

• Take a few minutes to write a story, poem, or create some type of art that expresses what you notice about the night sky or how it makes you feel.

 

• 

  Night Whispers - Trevor and Mary

  Night Whispers concentrates on singular responses from the Night Spoken Series. Here we join Trevor and Mary who share how the stars give them perspective. Recorded during the Night Visions sessions.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 20 seconds

 

Activity 4: Observations

Scientists make observations every day to help them learn more about the world. Find a spot to sit outdoors, or by a window, and practice making observations about your surroundings. Take 10 minutes to write and draw what you notice.

What do you see, hear, feel and smell? Is it busy or quiet where you are?

How do you feel after doing this? Did you notice anything you didn’t at first?

 

Congratulations! You are now a Virtual Junior Ranger.

Swear in with the video below and download the Junior Ranger Badge image. The park is unable to mail out Junior Ranger Badges.

 

Duration:

34 seconds

Have you completed the Junior Ranger Book and are ready to swear in? Join our Park Rangers and take the pledge!