🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Acadia National Park

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Get out your atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Maine is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Maine’s important historical and natural places: the Acadia National Park, which helps to preserve the beautiful landscape of the Maine coast.

“Acadia National Park protects the natural beauty of the highest rocky headlands along the Atlantic coastline of the United States, an abundance of habitats, and a rich cultural heritage. At 4 million visits a year, it’s one of the top 10 most-visited national parks in the United States. Visitors enjoy 27 miles of historic motor roads, 158 miles of hiking trails, and 45 miles of carriage roads.”

Acadia National Park preserves approximately 50,000 acres along the mid-section of the Maine coast, containing the tallest mountains on the eastern seaboard, an iconic rocky Maine coastline, and subalpine rocky summits. The park’s mountains, lakes, streams, wetlands, forests, meadows, and coastlines contribute to the diversity of plants and animals found here. Acadia is within the transition zone between southern and northern forests, and as a result, hosts plant species and communities currently at the edge of their geographic range. The park’s location along the Atlantic flyway makes it an important resting and feeding place for migrating birds and bats.

Animals inhabit all of Acadia, from the smallest microorganism to the falcons and eagles that fly above the park’s mountain peaks, and in every ecosystem in between. With a keen eye you can always be watching wildlife from a safe distance during your visit to Acadia.

There are over 1,000 different types of plants in Acadia. As generations of humans worked these woodlands and waters and waterfronts, plants formed the foundation of their survival. On land, low-to-the-ground plants such as mosses, grasses, ferns, and lie beneath larger plants such as trees and shrubs. Joining these plants on the ground are lichens and mushrooms which are not true plants, but organisms that are unique in the natural world. In tidepools, saltmarshes, and on the coast, marine algae, seaweed, and other saltwater plants rise and fall with the tides. (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the Park’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for the Acadia National Park from the National Park Service, and also on the Park’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What American treasures have you and your students been exploring in your homeschool this Orion Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a great long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛️

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨️

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒