Teacher Resources
Indian Education for All
Explore and learn about Montana State Parks and our rich Native American history.
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Montana State Parks, in partnership with the Office of Public Instruction, has created 21 model lesson plans for K-12 teachers that each feature a Montana State Park.
While the students’ knowledge and personal experience can be enhanced by an actual visit to a State Park, the lesson plans stand alone in the classroom. They are written for multiple grade levels, cover various content areas, and offer a rich resource that teachers can adapt to their classroom’s needs.
- Makoshika State Park
- Title: Dinosaur Trails and Dinosaur Tales
- Content Areas: Science; Social Studies; Literature; Art
- Grade Level: 2nd – 4th (could be simplified for K – 1st grades)
- Lesson Plan (
94 KB)
- Pictograph Cave State Park
- Title: Pictographs: Images of Art and History
- Content Areas: Art; Reading; Social Studies
- Grade Level: 3rd – 4th
- Lesson Plan ( 421 KB)
- First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park
- Title: Buffalo and the Blackfeet
- Content Areas: Social Studies; Reading
- Grade Level: 3rd – 5th (Benchmarks listed here are 4th grade)
- Lesson Plan ( 171 KB)
- Lone Pine State Park
- Title: Indigenous Uses of Fire in Western Montana
- Content Areas: Social Studies; Science; Listening and Speaking
- Grade Level: 3rd – 5th (Benchmarks listed herein are for 4th grade)
- Lesson Plan ( 269 KB)
- Travelers’ Rest State Park
- Title: Tmsli, the Place of No Salmon
- Content Areas: Social Studies; Reading; Literature; Art* (*See “Related Curriculum and Suggestions”)
- Grade Level: 4th (suitable for 2nd – 4th)
- Lesson Plan ( 281 KB)
- Beavertail Hill State Park
- Title: What's in a Name?
- Content Areas: Social Studies; Geography; Montana History
- Grade Level: 4th – 5th
- Lesson Plan ( 124 KB)
- Wild Horse Island State Park
- Title: Scarred Trees Tell the Story
- Content Areas: Social Studies (History, Geography, Cultural Archaeology); Science
- Grade Level: 7th – 8th (suitable for 9th – 10th grades with corresponding benchmarks)
- Lesson Plan ( 933 KB)
- Missouri Headwaters State Park
- Title: Introduction to Ethnobotanical Uses of Native Plants Along the Missouri River
- Content Areas: Social Studies, Science; Speaking and Listening; Reading
- Grade Level: 5th – 8th
- Lesson Plan ( 135 KB)
- Tower Rock State Park
- Title: The Old North Trail – An Ancient Highway System
- Content Areas: Social Studies
- Grade Level: 5th – 8th
- Lesson Plan ( 158 KB)
- Rosebud Battlefield State Park
- Title: Understanding the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and the Battle of the Rosebud 1876
- Content Areas: Social Studies (History); Reading
- Grade Level: 6th – 8th (adaptable for high school)
- Lesson Plan ( 224 KB)
- Beaverhead Rock State Park
- Title: In Her Own Lands: Sacagawea and the Lewis & Clark Expedition in Southwestern Montana
- Content Areas: Social Studies; History; Geography
- Grade Level: 6th – 8th (adaptable for 9th – 12th)
- Lesson Plan ( 154 KB)
- Clark's Lookout State Park
- Title: Cultural Vantage Points: Salish Perspectives on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- Content Areas: Social Studies; History; Geography
- Grade Level: 6th – 8th (adaptable for 9th – 12th)
- Lesson Plan ( 933 KB)
- Bannack State Park
- Title: Contradictory Worldviews: Placing Montana’s Gold Rush into a Tribal Historical Perspective
- Content Areas: Social Studies, Science
- Grade Level: 6th – 8th (suitable for 9th – 10th with corresponding high school benchmarks)
- Lesson Plan ( 135 KB)
- Smith River State Park
- Title: Occupation, Use and Settlement of the Smith River and the Impacts on the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana
- Content Areas: Social Studies (U.S. History; U>S> Government; Montana History; Blackfeet History)
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 159 KB)
- Madison Buffalo Jump State Park
- Title: Buffalo Past and Present
- Content Areas: Content Areas: Social Studies; Writing
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 1.1 MB)
- Fort Owen State Park
- Title: Fort Owen: Cultural Crossroad of the Bitterroot Valley
- Content Areas: Social Studies; Reading; Speaking and Listening; Writing
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 166 KB)
- Council Grove State Park
- Title: Council Grove: Site of the Hellgate Treaty of 1855
- Content Areas: Social Studies (History; Geography; Government; Tribal History)
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 334 KB)
- Brush Lake State Park
- Title: A Cultural and Land-Use Study of the Prairie Ecosystem in Northeastern Montana
- Content Areas: Science; Social Studies; Speaking and Listening
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 181 KB)
- Chief Plenty Coups State Park
- Title: Plenty Coups, Leadership and the Vision Quest
- Content Areas: Social Studies
- Grade Level: 9th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 107 KB)
- Medicine Rocks State Park
- Title: Shared Destinies: Tribal Cultural Resources and Cultural Survival
- Content Areas: Social Studies (History; Government; Economics;Montana’s Indian Tribes; Federal Indian Policy; Current Events); Science
- Grade Level: 11th – 12th
- Lesson Plan ( 215 KB)
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Elementary School Lesson Plans
