Teaching Resources
The Anchorage Museum offers a range of online resources and publications to support your teaching. These resources are designed for classroom teaching, home learning, and museum visit preparation.
To explore lesson plans and tools for teaching and learning about Alaska and the North click on the items below.
Select items from the drop down boxes below to see relevant course material, or search for material.
- Audience/Grade
- Standards
- Topic
- Learning Environment
- Resource Format
Alaska Salmon, Migration, and Immigration
Explore 2 primary sources to learn about how salmon canneries have influenced Alaska Native land and harvesting rights, and impacted human migration and immigration in Alaska with 2nd-12th grade students and up.
Anchorage: Maps and Place Names
Explore 4 primary sources to learn about Anchorage and its place names through photographs and maps with 2nd-12th grade students.
Art: Attungaruk the Third’s Whale
Examine the artwork Attungaruk the Third’s Whale by Simon Koonook with 11th grade students.
Art: Everything I Love Is Here
Examine the artwork Everything I Love is Here by Alvin Amason with 1st grade students.
Art: Float
Examine the artworks Float (Slip) & Float (Noatak) by John Grade with 8th grade students.
Art: Marie Rexford
Examine the artwork Marie Rexford by Brian Adams for Kindergarten or 9th-12th grade students.
Art: Neqeniighta
Examine the artwork Neqeniighta by James Temte, Michelle Xiao, and Jon Burpee with 6th grade students.
Art: Punk Nanuk Inua
Examine the artwork Punk Nanuk Inua by Lawrence James Beck with 4th grade students.
Art: Women of the North
Examine the Women of the North series by Rebecca Lyon with 2nd grade students.
Belonging
Explore the idea of belonging through artworks created by artists who have made Alaska their home with K-12th grade students.
BLINK At Home: Found Art
Engage your early learner in the creation of a collage using recycled materials.
BLINK At Home: PlayDoh Robots
Engage your early learner in the investigation of robot design. Create robots out of PlayDoh and found objects around your home.
Bowhead Whale
Dive into the objects and ideas connected to the bowhead whale with 3rd-12th grade students.
Citizen Science: Repeat Photography
Learn about repeat photography and then be a citizen scientist by participating in the Anchorage Museum’s repeat photography project.
CoLab: Button Making
Learn how to create homemade buttons with this step-by-step guide. Show your passions with custom buttons.
CoLab: Embroidery
Learn basic embroidery techniques using this step-by-step guide. Includes two sampler projects and guides for nine beginner embroidery stitches.
CoLab: Japanese Stab Softcover
Learn basic Japanese Stab bookbinding techniques with our step-by-step guide. Includes Binding Patterns for three journal styles.
CoLab: Pom-Poms
Learn how to make Pom-pom at home using simple materials. Step by step instructions provided.
CoLab: Seed Starts
Build an Eco-friendly pot out of newspaper and use it to grow your food. Learn the basics of seed starting at home with step by step instructions.
Cold
Explore objects, images and ideas connected to surviving and thriving in the North with K-12th grade students.
Contemporary Identities
Learn more about contemporary artists who examine identity through their artworks with 9th-12th grade students.
Dena'ina Word of the Week
Increasing exposure to the Dena’ina language to all who are curious, one word at a time.
Dena’ina Plant Deck
Learn some Dena’ina words and uses for plants found throughout the Dena’ina homeland.
Earthquakes
Learn about the impacts of earthquakes on landscapes and communities by analyzing primary sources from the Anchorage Museum’s archives with 5th-12th grade students.
Forage
Learn about the practice of foraging and related museum objects with 2nd-12th grade students.
General Public Visitor Study Guide
Share this guide with anyone to let them know what to expect when they visit the museum as a member of the public.
Perspectives
Listen to short audio clips where artists, scholars, and educators reflect on museum objects related to celebration from the Alaska Exhibition and Art of the North Galleries.
School Field Trip Visitor Story Guide
Share this guide with students to let them know what to expect on their museum field trip.
Science Passport: Ground Exploration
Learn about the details waiting to be observed in ground outside your home with activities that will connect with the Anchorage Museum’s Science Passport: Home Edition.
Science Passport: Home Edition
Explore the world of science in and around your home. Use this passport to mark the scientific adventures you discover in your everyday spaces.
Science Passport: Objects in Drawers
Use objects found inside your drawers in creative ways with activities that will connect with the Anchorage Museum’s Science Passport: Home Edition.
Science Passport: Sink – Properties of Water
Learn about the properties of water at home with activities that will connect with the Anchorage Museum’s Science Passport: Home Edition.
Science Passport: Window Phenology
Learn about the environment outside your window and the study of phenology with activities that will connect with the Anchorage Museum’s Science Passport: Home Edition.
Sensory-Friendly and Access Morning Story Guide
Share this guide with anyone attending a Sensory-Friendly and Access Morning at the museum.
Shaawatke’é’s Birth: Language, Identity, and Art
Examine the relationship of language, culture, and identity through the poem Shaawatke’é’s Birth by Emily Wall and X’unei Lance Twitchell and works of art from the Anchorage Museum with 9th-12th grade students.
Sounds of Your Place
Discover the sounds of your place by listening outside and learning about soundscape ecology.
Stars: Interdisciplinary Exploration
Discover the art, science, navigation, and astrophotography of stars with 6-8th grade students.
Translated Museum Maps
Share these maps with anyone who would benefit in a museum map in one of the nine languages provided.
Twenty Questions
Delve deeply by using this deck of twenty questions to ask any museum object with K-12th grade students.
What We Eat
Explore objects and ideas connected to foodways in the North with K-12th grade students.
Letters of the North
Explore 2 primary sources to learn about how people stay connected in the North through objects from the museum collection with 2nd-12th grade students.
Virtual Field Trips On-Demand
Explore the museum with these virtual field trip videos and supporting resources.
CoLab: Cardstock Roses
Learn how to create simple cardstock roses. Experiment with various sizes and colors of paper to create a beautiful paper flower bouquet.
CoLab: Crepe Paper Roses
Learn how to create crepe paper roses with this step-by-step guide. Perfect for a single lasting rose or creating entire bouquets.
CoLab: French Link Binding
Learn how to bind a beautiful hardcover journal with an exposed ribbon binding with these step-by-step instructions.
CoLab: Paper Baskets
Learn how to make colorful paper baskets using simple materials with these step-by-step instructions.
CoLab: Paper Quilling
Learn the basics of paper quilling. Combine the shapes and techniques to create your own beautiful paper quilled cards and art.
CoLab: Plant Hanger
Learn how to make plant hanger using macramé techniques and hang your favorite plant in your favorite spot in this step-by-step guide.
CoLab: Smythe Binding
Learn the basics of Smythe binding. Create your own custom hardcover journal to fill with your thoughts, stories, or drawings.
CoLab: Weaving
Learn how to warp a loom and some basic weaving techniques to get you started on your first decorative weaving project.
BLINK At Home: Art Dice
Engage your early learner in art making challenges. Roll the die to determine which colors, patterns, and shapes to include in your art. Create your own custom art dice for your favorite art making challenges.
BLINK At Home: Dice Games
Engage your early learner in number games. Practice counting and number identification skills and look for hidden images of animals from the museum’s live collection.
BLINK At Home: Feelings
Investigate your early learner’s feelings. Try several different activities designed to process, express, and work out big feelings trapped in a little body.
BLINK At Home: Homemade Paint
Engage your early learner in the creation of homemade paint. Practice color and shape identification and investigate how colors mix together.
BLINK At Home: Nature Crafts
Engage your early learner in making art with nature. Try these three different art activities incorporating nature.
BLINK At Home: Quilts
Engage your early learner in the investigation of shapes and colors in quilts. Create a collaborative paper quilt using tangram shapes.
BLINK At Home: Scavenger Hunt
Engage your early learner in an investigation of the outdoors. Practice scientific skills such as counting, making observations, and sketching what you see.
BLINK At Home: Shadow Puppets
Engage your early learner in investigating shadows. Why are shadows the shape they are? Can you control the size?
BLINK At Home: STEAMing in the Rain
Engage your early learner in the investigation of weather. Participate in science, technology, engineering, art, and math activities about rain and the weather.
CoLab: Paper Circuit
Learn how an electrical circuit works and create your own paper circuit using colorful LEDs, a coin cell battery, and copper tape on a regular paper.
CoLab: String Art
Create animal-inspired art using the following simple materials: foam board, push pins, and colored string.
Extra Tough: Reclaiming Identity Through Art
Investigate the artworks Native Looking by Erica Lord and Wat'sa with a Pearl Earring by Alison Bremner. Intended for ages 12 and up.
BLINK at Home: Aurora Art
Engage your early learner in investigations about the aurora borealis. Look closely at photos of the aurora and use them as inspiration to create your own aurora art.
BLINK at Home: Animal Enrichment
Engage your young learner in learning about how we enrich the lives of the animals at the Anchorage Museum. Build your own enrichment toys out of recycled materials.
BLINK at Home: Balance Olympics
Engage your young learner with innovative games to grow their balance abilities. Create medals and play games designed to increase and challenge their sense of balance.
BLINK at Home: Design a Mission
Engage your early learner in investigations about spacecraft. Learn about the International Space Station and design your own spacecraft out of recycled materials.
BLINK at Home: Fly in the Sky
Engage your early learner in investigations of flight. Create a kite to fly outside or using the power of a fan indoors.
BLINK at Home: Inventor Kit
Engage your young learner with creative problem-solving prompts. Build an inventor kit and use the materials inside to invent solutions to STEAM prompts.
BLINK at Home: Inventor Puppets
Engage your young learner in discussion about inventors. Create your own inventor puppets with moveable arms and legs made of different sized straws.
BLINK at Home: Weather Mobile
Engage your early learner in discussion about rainbows. Create a weather mobile as a reminder of the science behind rainbows.
Extra Tough: Leadership and Activism by Women of the North
Investigate primary sources to examine leadership and activism by women who have helped shape Alaska and the North. Intended for ages 12 and up.
Chugachmiut Heritage Kits
Learn about Chugach Region, its people, the Sugt’stun language, and the Sugpiaq and Eyak Cultures; through Chugachmiut’s online PreK-12 Curriculum, Elder Interviews, How-to Videos, and Resources page.
Teens Taking Climate Action
Learn about climate action work teens are doing with support from the Anchorage Museum Education Team.
Words and Sounds for Our Northern Place
Explore 4 primary resources with 9th-12th grade students through interactive activities that will engage students to consider their connection to the land and the importance of place.
A Moment in Time: ANCSA
Investigate primary sources to examine the events surrounding the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Intended for ages 12 and up.
Soundscape: Intro to Sound
Examine the scientific field of soundscape ecology and how to utilize the sense of hearing to better understand natural environments.
Soundscape: Sense of Place
Discover the concept of of sense of place through the use of the five sense.
Soundscape: Art and Sound
Discover the scientific field of soundscape ecology with visual arts by examining visual representations of the dynamic soundscapes of Alaska.
Soundscape: Sound Analysis
Examine the concept of sound analysis by exploring tools and techniques which help break down the information in recorded sound data.
Soundscape: Summer
Examine the seasonal aspect of summer soundscapes and how those soundscapes are impacted by noise.
Stewardship
Use this booklet with 4th-12th grade students to learn about stewardship and how it is integral to the Dena’ina culture.
Cultural Arts: Adornment
Investigate Dene adornment practices through objects from the Anchorage Museum, videos from Indigenous knowledge holders, and culturally appropriate art-making. Grades 6-12.
Drums of Alaska
Investigate Lingít and Iñupiaq drums and investigate their sounds with K-6th students.
Musical Soundscapes
Investigate Glacier Bay Ice by Byron Birdsall and investigate musical soundscapes with K-6th students.
Cultural Arts: Sewing
Investigate sewing tools and techniques used in Alaska Native cultures through objects from the Anchorage Museum, resources from Indigenous knowledge holders, and culturally appropriate art-making. Grades 6-12.
Cultural Arts: Baleen & Scrimshaw
Investigate baleen objects and scrimshaw techniques used in Alaska Native cultures and develop scrimshaw skills with grades 6-12.
BLINK at Home: Beaver Homes
Engage your early learner in learning about beavers and their homes. Learn about beaver dams and lodges and investigate how to design and build your own.
BLINK at Home: Bird Nests
Engage your early learner in investigations about bird nests. Learn about different kinds of Alaskan birds and look at pictures of birds and their nests as inspiration to create your own.
BLINK at Home: Family Pets
Engage your early learner in investigations about family pets. Learn about the basic needs of all animals and learn more about the animals who live Anchorage Museum to design their perfect home.
BLINK at Home: Family Portraits
Engage your early learner in creating artwork depicting family. Discuss family and friends and create collages that represent each loved one.
BLINK at Home: Family Recipes
Engage your early learner in investigating recipes. Work together to discuss and create recipes explaining how to create their favorite foods.
BLINK at Home: Habitats
Engage your early learner in investigations about habitats around the world. Learn how different habitats make good homes for different animals and create your own habitats for your favorite animal toys.
BLINK at Home: Hermit Crabs
Engage your early learner in investigations about hermit crabs. Learn about hermit crabs and their homes through reading books and informational text with photos.
BLINK at Home: Museum Field Trip
Take a virtual field trip to the Anchorage Museum to investigate Alvin Amason’s Everything I Love is Here. Be inspired by Amason’s process to create your own works of art at home.
BLINK at Home: The Perfect Animal Home
Engage your early learner in investigations about animal homes. Read your favorite books depicting animal homes and discuss why different animals need to live in different kinds of homes.
BLINK at Home: Alphabet Art
Engage your early learner in investigations about letters and letter sounds. Create alphabet art that depicts words beginning with each letter of the alphabet and practice spelling names.
BLINK at Home: Animal Impressions
Engage your early learner in investigations about animal tracks. Look for animal tracks and discover how your favorite toys leave tracks in playdough.
BLINK at Home: Animal Snacks
Engage your early learner in investigations into what animals eat. Create snacks for your toy animals out of playdough and roll a die to decide how many snacks each animal should receive.
BLINK at Home: Building in Alaska
Engage your early learner in investigations about earthquakes and Alaskan buildings. Experiment to create buildings that won’t fall down in an earthquake.
BLINK at Home: Building Landforms
Engage your early learner in investigations about habitats. Create habitats for your favorite animal toys out of craft supplies and building materials.
BLINK at Home: Buzzy Bees
Engage your early learner in pretend play learning about bees. Read together to learn more about bees and then play as bees collecting pollen from flowers.
BLINK at Home: Camouflage Games
Engage your early learner in games about animal camouflage. Read a book to learn how camouflage helps different animals and play games to investigate camouflage more deeply.
BLINK at Home: Campfire Cooking
Engage your early learner in pretend play camping. Go on a pretend camping adventure as you build a blanket fort, cook over the campfire, and discuss campfire safety.
BLINK at Home: Character Puppets
Engage your early learner in investigations about book characters. Read your favorite books and recreate the characters as puppets to retell the story.
BLINK at Home: Counting Sled Dogs
Engage your early learner in close-looking and counting photos of sled dogs. Encourage them to practice counting and writing numbers as you count the sled dogs in each archival image.
BLINK at Home: Creative Collage
Engage your early learner in the creation of collage artwork. Practice scissor and tearing skills as you create collage letters.
BLINK at Home: Creative Creatures
Engage your early learner in investigations about animal adaptations. Discuss familiar animals and be inspired to create a new animal from recycled materials.
BLINK at Home: Dress for the Weather
Engage your early learner in investigations about dressing correctly for weather conditions. Roll the weather dice to choose a weather condition and race to dress for the weather as quickly as possible.
BLINK at Home: Fishing
Engage your early learner in a pretend play fishing trip. Create your own fish and magnetic fishing poles, then count and sort your catch by color while practicing water safety.
BLINK at Home: Food from the Land
Engage your early learner in investigations about foods that grow. Learn about the preferred foods of Scooby the Russian desert tortoise and use what you learn to inspire your own artwork.
BLINK at Home: Sense of Smell
Engage your early learner in investigations using their sense of smell. Create and play a scent matching game.
BLINK at Home: Setting Postcards
Engage your early learner in investigations about the settings in their favorite books. Read a book and discuss where the story takes place, then create postcard artwork depicting the setting.
BLINK at Home: Storytelling
Engage your early learner in investigations about retelling stories. Investigate your favorite books on a deeper level by asking questions during the reading process and retelling the story with toys.
BLINK at Home: Water Art
Engage your early learner in investigations creating artwork with the help of water. Create colorful artwork by adding water to tissue paper and letting it bleed onto your paper.
BLINK at Home: Water Letters
Engage your early learner in investigations into letters and letter sounds. Engage in water play to practice writing letters and identifying letters and letter sounds.
BLINK at Home: Whale Watching
Engage your early learner in investigations about whales. Read your favorite whale books and engage in a pretend play whale watching trip counting whale tails with familiar shapes and patterns.
Cultural Arts: Woodcarving
Investigate woodcarving tools and techniques used in Alaska Native cultures through objects from the Anchorage Museum, resources from Indigenous knowledge holders, and culturally appropriate art-making. Grades 6-12.
BLINK at Home: Crafty Construction
Expand on your favorite Dolly Parton's Imagination Library books with this construction themed activity from Best Beginnings and the Anchorage Museum.
BLINK at Home: Inventive Illustrations
Investigate the illustrations in your favorite Dolly Parton's Imagination Library books with this activity from Best Beginnings and the Anchorage Museum.
BLINK at Home: Sound Maps
Investigate sound with your favorite Dolly Parton's Imagination Library books and this activity from Best Beginnings and the Anchorage Museum.
Alaska Is: How Water is Life
Investigate the importance of water through photographs from the Anchorage Museum through activities in Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts. Grades 6-8.
Alaska Is: What Nourishes Us
Investigate what nourishes us through photographs and activities in Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts. Grades 6-8.
Cultural Arts: Measuring & Symmetry
Investigate measuring techniques and approaches to symmetry used in Alaska Native cultures with grades 6-12.
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: ANCSA
Learn about the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) through individual perspectives.
Alaska Is: How We Work With Each Other
Learn about some of Alaska’s largest industries and the work conditions surrounding them with grades 6-8.
Alaska Is: What We Value
Examine how we value land, identity, and what we do. Intended for K-5th grades.
Alaska Is: How We Learn
Examine the different ways in which we learn through photos and activities. Grades K-5.
Alaska Is: How We Act
Engage and examine the ways in which we behave and take action as communities by close-looking at photos from the Anchorage Museum collection and History and Language Arts activities. Grades 9-12.
Music - Alaska Drum Types
Learn more about Alaska Native drum types by close-looking at objects from the Anchorage Museum collection. Grades K-2.
Alaska Is: How We Live With Each Other - Journey
Learn more about Alaska and its place before and during the Great Migration by close-looking at photos from the Anchorage Museum collection and through History, Alaska Studies, and Language Arts activities. Grades 9-12.
Alaska Is: How We Live With Each Other - Justice
Learn more about Black civil rights in Alaska, activism efforts, and representation by close-looking at photos from the Anchorage Museum collection and History and Language Arts activities. Grades 9-12.
Alaska Is: How We Live With Each Other - Joy
Learn more about the community of Eastchester Flats and Black joy in Alaska by close-looking at photos from the Anchorage Museum collection and Language Arts activities. Grades 9-12.
Alaska Native Language Posters
View and listen to posters in various Alaska Native languages. For learners of all ages.
Music - Composing an Original Song
Collaborate with one another to learn about composing original music. Grades 2-4.
Music - Musical Diffusion
Explore the means and methods of cultural diffusion and its impacts on the contemporary musical styles across the state. Grades 2-4.
Music - Musical Exchange in Alaska
Learn more about the transformation of music and culture in Alaska. Grades 4-6.
Music - Percussive Qualities
Explore advanced rhythm and sound using simple percussion instruments such as drums and rattles with grades K-2.
Music - Theme, Mood, and Tone
Explore concepts of conveying mood and emotion through close-looking and writing. Grades 4-6