Learn about Wildlife at Home or at School
For more than 35 years the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has worked to support educators teaching about Alaska's wildlife and habitat. Now, more than ever, engagement in the outdoors with easy-to-use, place-based lessons and materials will help your students connect with their place, families, and the natural world.
**For even more amazing teaching resources, click on the Teacher Resources page!
Tracks and Animal Signs
Check out the different ways you can learn about animal signs!
Alaska Ecology Cards (PDF 2,881 kB)
Alaska's Wild Wonders Kids Magazine: Tracks! (PDF 1,359 kB)
Alaska Wildlife Curriculum: Forests and Wildlife, Insect, Mammal and Bird Signs (PDF 403 kB)
Track Card Download (PDF 490 kB)
Track Puzzles for early childhood (PDF 163 kB)
Track Tuesday
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Facebook page
features weekly-Track Tuesday posts- includes tracking tips, photos and videos
Video: Tracking a Lynx by Mike Taras
Early Childhood Tracking Data (PDF 51 kB)
Furs
Learn about the amazing similarities and differences of the fur on Alaska's Animals with these resources.
How to videos
How to Take Great Photos of Tracks by Mike Taras (NEW)
Learn how to take pictures of animal tracks so you can document them or seek help with identification.
Forest Learning Trail by Sierra Doherty
Students and teachers learn from observing nature in the Mat-Su Valley.
Tracking a Lynx by Mike Taras
Join Wildlife Education Specialist, Mike Taras in Fairbanks and learn how to tell a story from the tracks animals leave behind.
Activities for Home or School
Lessons for a changing Season
Even if your community is still covered in snow, changes are happening! Check out how trees and shrubs respond to more light and heat.
Forests and Wildlife Full Curriculum Guide (PDF 15,984 kB)
Snag a home! (PDF 123 kB)
Forests and Sunlight (PDF 115 kB)
Forests and Air (PDF 126 kB)
Forest Succession Background (PDF 817 kB)
Succession Activity: Which animal goes where? (PDF 410 kB)
Rain-Making Partners (PDF 145 kB)
Tree Basics: Elements that Create a Forest (PDF 1,245 kB)
Trees Worksheets (PDF 95 kB)
Tree Twig Growth Rate (PDF 93 kB)
Tree Seed Game (PDF 122 kB)
Bears
Learn more about Alaska's Bears Teaching Guide with worksheets, activities and background information
Bears of Alaska Teacher's Guide
Bear Blitz! (PDF 355 kB)
Use these presentations and materials to help students and their adults learn more about wildlife safety
In 2016, ADF&G worked with Kodiak artist Mary Ruskovich to produce a uniquely Alaskan bear aware coloring book. In 2024, students in the Matanuska Valley of southcentral Alaska helped design a read-along storybook version of the coloring book that was made by kids, for kids. See their creation at: Be Bear Aware Coloring Book: Flipbook.
Color your own classroom Be Bear Aware Storybook with the downloadable PDF, Be Bear Aware Coloring Book (2016) (PDF 2,951 kB). To print at home, use 8.5x11 inch paper, landscape format, side, or corner staple. If you would like multiple copies, or want to show off your student's colorful creation, email the DWC Wildlife Education program at jen.curl@alaska.gov.
Scavenger Hunts
Grow your observation skills with a little hunt and find. Using a camera to photograph your finds to create a digital journal to introduce technology. Revisit the sites to see what has changed!
Inquiry Challenges
Join Mike Taras to learn about some interesting beaver behavior. Use the resources listed here to see if you can figure out what is happening!
Wildlife Notebook: Beavers (PDF 207 kB)
Beaver, Muskrat, Otter Finger Puppets (PDF 163 kB)
Returning and Emerging Wildlife
Birds are back
The Alaska State Refuges are special places where migrating birds nest or just stop over. Here are a few guides for adults or students to learn more.
Palmer Hay Flats - My Bird Journal(Mat-Su Valley) (PDF 864 kB)
Potter Marsh (Anchorage) (PDF 387 kB)
Bird Watch-Creamer's Field (Fairbanks) (PDF 616 kB)
Booklet: Creamer's Field Guide to Birds (PDF 674 kB)
Learn more about common birds in Alaska (PDF 2,161 kB)
Bird Quiz (PowerPoint file 5,109 kB)
Learn some common bird calls and test your knowledge.
Wood Frogs
This time of year wood frogs are croaking their song all over Alaska. They can be found even in the busiest places in Alaska. Test your wood frog knowledge by their 'song,' learn about their life cycle and their amazing winter survival adaptation.
All about wood frogs (PDF 51 kB)
Life cycles of wood frogs and other animals
What does one wood frog sound like? (MP3 file 284 kB)
What do 6-12 wood frogs sound like? (MP3 file 62 kB)
What does a full chorus sound like? (MP3 file 300 kB)
Test your knowledge. One, twelve or a full chorus? (MP3 file 776 kB)
In this photo hides a wood frog. Can you find him?
Print off 2 copies of the frog pages. On one page use pasta to glue on a skeleton, on the second page create the skin of a frog. It can be a real one or one from your imagination. Remember, you might have to explain how the frog's color helps it to camoflauge! Cut them out and paste or staple them together. Now you can see its skin and bones!
Sea Mammals
Learn about the impacts of trash on wildlife with Fish and Game biologist Sue Goodglick and a video, 'Trash Talk'
Marine Mammals and Debris (PowerPoint file 134,487 kB)
Presentation by Sue Goodglick. This is a large file and may take a while to download.
E-Learning
Interactive Lessons
Google slides that are interactive worksheets and ready to use. Copy and save to your computer to adapt them for your students.
Wild Wonders
Kids (and adults) can work through a series of challenges that feature Alaska's Wild Foods! Teachers can direct the entire class to work through guided instruction or assign the activity independently. Its fun to learn about the nutrition and abundance of Alaska's Wild Foods.
Coloring pages
Wetland Types and Descriptions (PDF 8,636 kB)
Ecosystem Types and Coloring Pages (PDF 17,254 kB)
Booklet: Creamer's Field Guide to Birds (PDF 674 kB)
Early Childhood
*These guides may be purchased when you participate in an ADF&G workshop or by contacting ADF&G
Grow As We Go!
Some animals begin their life looking very different. Color and cut out the cards for this fun activity and place their growth stages in order. Which animal has the most stages and who has the least?
WorksheetVideos and Media for students
Students discover and count the diversity of life in their own backyard
Students from Auke Bay School in Juneau use game cameras to learn about wildlife and science literacy in this fun video.
Watch, hear and read about Alaska's Animals on the Fish and Game Website
A video by students for students- Learn to be safe around moose.
What do bears do when no one is watching? Check out theses images taken from cameras attached to radio-collars worn by bears in Anchorage.
I'm not mean, I'm hungry! A wolverine helps himself to a ground nest of eggs
North America's largest land mammal is free on the range.
This video summarizes the method used by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to estimate the population size of various caribou herds in Alaska. A ten-minute bird's eye view of a wildlife phenomenon few people get to see.