Teaching Tools about the Grasslands of The Northern Great Plains

The resources in this content pack are designed to encourage learners to explore, analyze, and discuss the importance of grassland ecosystems like the Northern Great Plains.

The resources in this content pack are designed to encourage learners to explore, analyze, and discuss the importance of grassland ecosystems like the Northern Great Plains, the benefits grasslands provide to wildlife and people, and our role in protecting them. The resources also take a look at the role pollinators play to keep ecosystems healthy while familiarizing learners with the pollinators and wildflowers native to their area. These resources are great for grades 3-8, but can be adapted for any grade level.

 

Background Resources for Educators

The resource guide gives you all the information you need to teach your students about grassland ecosystems and the impacts of human activity on the Northern Great Plains. The guide includes basic facts about the grasslands of Northern Great Plains, why this ecosystem matters, what threats it is facing, what WWF is doing to help, and what kids can do to help.

  • Educators Resource Guide

    Educators Resource Guide

Learning Activities

  • Science

    Discussion Questions

    Use these questions to help shape supplementary discussions and activities within your learning environment.

  • Science

    Whose Home Is on the Range

    In this diversity and adaptations science activity, learners will follow clues to discover the diversity of pollinators and what adaptations they have to help them do their job.

  • Science

    The Roles We Play

    To learn the interdependence of different parts of an ecosystem, learners will participate in a role-playing activity that demonstrates the impacts of living and non-living elements on each other and what threats they face in the Northern Great Plains.

  • Physical Education

    Pollinator Dash

    This cause and effect science game will get kids up and moving while discovering the impacts wildflowers have on pollinators, especially as grasslands are reduced by human activities.

  • Science

    Wildflower "No Pick" Scavenger Hunt

    Learners can use this guide to locate and identify wildflowers local to their region.

  • Science

    Pollinator Garden Guide and Wildflower Journal

    Learners can create their own pollinator garden and track its progress with a science journal.

  • Science

    Field of Bees

    Print-and-play dice game that teaches players about endangered bee species native to North America. Players will match flowers to the bees they attract while avoiding threats such as pesticides and climate change. Use this game to introduce your students to the importance of pollinators and motivate them to support their local bee species.

  • Science

    Virtual Field Trip Guide

    Pair this trip guide with the Northern Great Plains virtual field trip to learn about the abundant wildlife, plants, and people that make this region unique and so important.

Virtual Field Trip

Welcome to the Northern Great Plains! Join us on this virtual field trip as we explore the sights and sounds of this amazing ecosystem. We’ll travel across the grassland to learn about the abundant wildlife, plants, and people that make this region unique and so important to the entire North American continent. As we finish our trip, we’ll discover what threats this landscape faces and how you can help protect it for generations to come.

For Spanish subtitles, click here.


For more educational videos and Q&A sessions with our experts, subscribe to WWF's Wild Classroom YouTube channel.

Activity Book

This booklet is filled with puzzles, stories, and activities that can be printed as a full book or individually so kids can learn how to do their part to protect the Northern Great Plains

  • Grasslands and Pollinators Activity Book

    Grasslands and Pollinators Activity Book

Printables

  • Northern Great Plains Species Cards

    Northern Great Plains Species Cards

  • Grassland Posters (8.5x11)

    Grassland Posters (8.5x11)

  • Grassland Posters (11x17)

    Grassland Posters (11x17)

  • Certificate of Achievement

    Certificate of Achievement

Test Your Knowledge

Check out Wild Classroom's Habitat Spotlight: Grasslands course on Kahoot! Academy. This collection includes quizzes about black-footed ferrets, pollinators, and more!

More Grassland Resources

One Square Foot
Northern Great Plains place page
All About Monarch Butterflies video
All About Plains Bison video

Education materials developed in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Air Wick in support of the One Square Foot initiative and the PBS documentary My Garden of a Thousand Bees.