
Educational materials available on this site relate directly to content explored through the Museum of the White Mountains’ current, past, and/or travelling panel exhibitions. Nearly all of the museum’s exhibitions have coordinating educational materials, consisting of standards-based curriculum packets for elementary, middle, and high school classes. Click on the lesson title to access the lesson plans; click on the corresponding exhibition title to access online versions of the exhibition. Additional exhibit-related educational tools such as downloadable exhibition catalogs and various family activities are also accessible by clicking on exhibition titles.
The use of these materials for educational purposes is free and open to the public.
Past Exhibits
Finding Place on Paper: Contemporary Poets and Printmakers Explore the White Mountains
- Exhibit Visit Experience
- Pass the Paper and Print hands on activity
- Aesthetic Scanning: Lesson Plan Information for Teachers
- Aesthetic Scanning worksheet
- Responding with Words and Images
Taking the Lead: Women and the White Mountains
These lesson plans combine the exploration of the online exhibit with appropriate grade-level content and hands-on activities. Students will gain an understanding of how place affects the roles and activities of people in the White Mountains. Students will draw conclusions about the evolution of women’s roles
Trail Clubs: Connecting People with the Mountains
Advocating For a Forgotten Wetland
- AT Student Ambassador
- Hike around and In Littleton
- Learning our Communities
- Local Legends and Colorful Characters
Educational materials courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Beyond Granite: The Geology of Adventure
This unit combines the exploration of the online exhibit with appropriate grade-level content and hands-on activities to investigate the geologic processes that created the White Mountains, and to connect these events to the activities we enjoy here. Further reading.
Passing Through: The Allure of the White Mountains
Students will investigate and explore the history, personal stories and visual images recorded and created by visitors to the region, as found in the online exhibit catalogue, as a catalyst for discussion of the aesthetic qualities of the landscape and region that attracted tourists to the White Mountains.
- Elementary School: Stories of Place: An Integrated Arts Activity
- Middle School: Sites for Escape: An Integrated Visual Arts Activity
- High School: Personal Journeys: An Integrated Arts Activity
Guy Shorey: Among the White Hills
Guy Shorey was not only an entrepreneur and artist/photographer of the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, he was also a keen observer of the people and natural wonders of the land and times in which he lived. Lesson plans are designed to engage students in the process of observing their surroundings,
- Elementary School: A Photograph is Worth One Thousand Words
- Middle School: Guy Shorey, Artist/Photographer Bookmaking
- High School: Guy Shorey, Entrepreneur: Postcards from Home
These lesson plans are an exploration and discussion of the natural and aesthetic qualities of the landscape of the White Mountains. Lessons will make connections between subject matter of the White Mountain paintings, and the landscape qualities and resources that attracted tourists, settlers and industry.
- Elementary School: Important Places: Telling the Personal Story of the Beauty of Place
- Middle School: Editing the Landscape: Perception of Place and Importance
- High School: Expressing Sense of Place and Belonging
Protecting the Forest: The Weeks Act
Activities are an exploration and discussion of the movement to save the White Mountains and its forests that resulted in the 1911 Weeks Act. They focus on the environment and landscape of the White Mountains and why conservationists, tourists, industry, and residents found this location to be beautiful and important to save from unsustainable practices of industry.
- Elementary School: A Walk in the Forest: Integrated Visual Arts Activities
- Middle School: Advocacy, Conservation, and Community: An Integrated Visual Arts Activity
- High School: Advocacy, Conservation, Community, Planning, and the Environment: An Visual Arts Activity
The following activities have been designed to teach students how to critically look at the visual images: to notice details, personally respond, ask questions and reflect about the meanings, to discover for themselves the unique culture and history of the “City that Trees Built.”