Naturalist John Muir was not only a naturalist but conservation advocate. You’ll also love the John Muir Spring Unit Study (and Hands-on Geography Ideas).
He dedicated his life to recording and preserving the beauty he saw, so much so that he is called “The Father Of The National Parks”.
Muir was born in Scotland in 1838 but migrated to the States in 1849 with his family.
Though still a traveler with a fierce love for nature, at 30, he decided that California would be his home wherever he went.
He spent much of his time there writing, sketching, and creating landscapes of sights like the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and other places around the globe.
Too, he was at the forefront of developing many national parks like Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, and Grand Canyon and fought to maintain their majestic views.
Today we are focusing on his beloved California and the landmarks there.
Because he claimed California as his home, we are diving into some of the landmarks around the state.
Next, look at some of these resources.
Books for Kids about John Muir
Add these living books and reference books to your study about John Muir.
11 John Muir Resources
The mountains are calling, and I must go -John Muir
In observance of National Park Service Founders Day and the care and work John Muir put into helping it become a reality, put together a unit study with a book or two, a video, a game, and a few hands-on activities like visiting the closest national park to you. There is plenty to choose from below.
A collection of John Muir’s best-selling writings and essays collected in 1 set.
Part of John Muir's appeal to modern readers is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Collected here in 1 set are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, national park observations, travels throughout Alaska, and writings about working in the Yosemite Valley.
A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir is the adventure that started it all.
Walk with John from Indiana through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. A story that is sure to inspire your own adventures and love for nature and the off beaten path.
John Muir loved the land. Born in 1838, he was a writer, a scholar, an inventor, a shepherd, a farmer, and an explorer. But above all, he was a naturalist. John Muir was particularly devoted to the high cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient giant sequoia trees that, through his careful influence, were set aside as Yosemite, one of the first national parks in America. Here is the life story of the man who, moved by a commitment to wilderness everywhere, founded the Sierra Club in 1892, a conservation group that carries on his crucial work to this day. Back matter includes an epilogue, a bibliography, and information about the Sierra Club.
"I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer," John Muir wrote. "Civilization and fever and all the morbidness that has been hooted at me has not dimmed my glacial eye, and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing."In Donald Worster's magisterial biography, John Muir's "special self" is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world. A Passion for Nature is the most complete account of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club ever written. It is the first to be based on Muir's full private correspondence and to meet modern scholarly standards. Yet it is also full of rich detail and personal anecdote, uncovering the complex inner life behind the legend of the solitary mountain man. It traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland and frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death on the eve of World War I. It explores his marriage and family life, his relationship with his abusive father, his many friendships with the humble and famous (including Theodore Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson), and his role in founding the modern American conservation movement.
National Geographic’s wide-ranging travel guide to recreation areas, trails, historic sites, nature hikes, seashores, camping, and campgrounds is geared to everyone who loves outdoor recreation. This 544-page reference is the ultimate travel planner for all things national parks, filled with full-color photos, detailed maps, historical background, and practical facts on the location of the park system properties, as well as the best times to visit and top-rated activities.
ohn Muir (1838–1914) ranks among America's most important and influential environmentalists and nature writers. Devoted to the preservation of wilderness areas, Muir founded the Sierra Club and was active in the establishment of Yosemite National Park. Our National Parks, originally published in 1901, includes ten articles that previously appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Muir wrote them in hopes of exciting interest in the parks, certain that visitors would fall in love with the scenic grandeur as he had—and that their enthusiasm would ensure the parks' preservation.
UNIQUE DESIGN…ARROWHEAD SHAPES: Scratch off each beautifully designed US National Park as you visit them, like Acadia, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Olympic, Grand Canyon, Arches and others!
Get to know America's 63 national parks with 390 wide-ranging trivia questions that cover their iconic geography, ecology, geology, history, wildlife, and botany—from the authors of Scenic Science of the National Parks.
- PLAY & LEARN: Professor Noggin’s series of educational card games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects.
- FUN FACTS: Journey through the Wildlife of North America discovering facts about our continent’s most interesting animals. From Polar Bears to Pronghorns, from Alligators to Bald Eagles, this game is perfect for young nature lovers.
What you get – Our National Treasures Matching Card Game comes with 52 tiles (26 pairs) and instructions
Clear instructions – Easy to learn memory card game. Learn to play in less than five minutes!
Develops critical skills – card games for kids help preschoolers practice their focus, memory, & matching skills.
Wildly Popular National Parks Game - Winner Of The Mensa And Parent's Choice Award
Created By National Parks Enthusiasts - This couple traveled to every single national park and then worked with their son to make the game.
Fun + Educational - It’s the perfect recipe for a family game night! Appeals to a wide range of people: outdoor lovers, board game players, and gift givers. A great board games for kids!
You are going to want to add this post to your bookmarks for either a California unit or a John Muir unit or combine both for a wonderfully multifaceted study.
John Muir, as he ascended the Pacheco pass wrote:
“At the top of the Pass I obtained my first view of the San Joaquin plain and the glorious Sierra Nevada.
Looking down from a height of fifteen hundred feet, there, extending north and south as far as I could see lay a vast level flower garden, smooch, and level like a lake of gold—the floweriest part of the world I had yet seen.”
Those bright orange California Poppies must have been an incredible sight to behold from above!
Let’s make a bouquet of our own while we learn about their homeland, Muir, and the flowers themselves.
If you want to learn to capture the beautiful landscape, plants, or animals wherever you may live, a copy of The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling is a must have.
California Landmarks With Naturalist John Muir
- There are many recognizable California landmarks, some were highlighted in his art and the topic of his books. Yosemite National Park- The land here is made up of waterfalls, cliffs, meadows, Sequoia trees, and abundant wildlife.
- Muir Woods Has been a Federally protected National Monument since 1908. It is full of stately old Redwoods from 400 to 800 years old and was named in honor of the naturalist John Muir.
- Joshua Tree– Here the landscape is studded with Yucca (Joshua Trees), it has two very distinct deserts the Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert, and at night time there’s very little light pollution making the view of the nighttime sky other worldly.
- Sequoia National Park– 404,064 acres of forested mountain terrain. The park is known for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth by its volume. These mighty trees can reach 350 ft tall and 24 ft in diameter, living up to 2,000 years.
Then, look at a few more resources.
Kids Activities to Learn About John Muir
- Grab this fun book Our National Parks.
- You can also try to grow some of your own California Poppies at home. They are supposed to be pretty easy to grow and like hot, dry spots with even poor soil.
- 7 John Muir Environmentalist Facts and Fun Teaching Ideas
- John Muir Spring Unit Study (and Hands-on Geography Ideas)
Finally, look at how to make this fun California poppy craft.
How To Make A Poppy Craft
You will need:
- Coffee filters
- Yellow and orange buttons
- Liquid watercolors
- paintbrush
- Green pipe cleaners
First, fold 3 coffee filters in half, then in half again.
Cut the corners to round them off and create a more distinct 4 petal shape.
Combine half a cup of water with 25 drops of yellow and 15 drops of orange, you can make several different cups to get variations on your shading.
Lay coffee filters on a tray or cookie sheet and paint them until fully saturated.
You can also take straight liquid watercolor and paint or drop onto the coffee filters to create natural shading and patterns.
Set them aside to dry, I laid them on our tray outside with a small rock holding each in place until they dried, which only took about 15 minutes in the hot sun.
Once they’re dry, stack three together and scrunch them up to wrinkle it and make your petals look more natural and ruffled, then press them flat.
Fold the stack in half then in half again, cut a slit ¼” up. Unfold one time and then slip several inches of pipe cleaner all the way through the holes.
Bend and twist it on itself to make the stem.
Gently unfold the petals of each of the layers until you get the look that you like.
To create the center of the poppy glue a yellow or orange button to the middle.
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