Educational Packet: Get to Know Western Rattlesnakes
Activities & Resources for Outdoor Education
Get to Know Western Rattlesnakes
Printable Packet | Grades 4-6
This worksheet will teach you more about Western rattlesnakes and the important roles they play in our ecosystems. Filled with fun facts and activities, including making your very own snake!
What to expect
In this packet you will:
- Learn about the lives of Western rattlesnakes, including their habitat, diet, and special adaptations.
- Explore Indigenous cultural connections and oral histories related to rattlesnakes.
- Do some fun activities, including drawing, a crossword, and a word search.
- Reflect on what you’ve learned with our discussion questions.
Exploring Indigenous cultural connections
When learning about environmental science, cool places and the plants and animals that inhabit them, we believe it is equally important to understand how humans have lived in relationship with these lands and beings since time immemorial. Indigenous stewardship has adapted in many ways with increased climate impacts across the landscape. Sierra Club BC aims to honour Indigenous voices and to ensure that unique Nations and worldviews are respectfully acknowledged.
While we’ve shared some publicly available resources below as a starting point, it’s best to engage with local Indigenous communities. Each Nation has distinct perspectives, cultures and governance systems, meaning that different communities will have different connections with this species. Many Nations have websites with a wealth of publicly shared knowledge that you can check out, or you could attend a public event hosted by the community. If you don’t know whose territory you live on, you can visit Native-Land.ca to learn more.
- Learn how to say ‘rattlesnake’ in the language of the Indigenous community on whose territory you live at FirstVoices.com.
Check out these extra learning resources
- Learn to draw rattlesnakes with this online art lesson!
Acknowledgements
- We wanted to express our sincere gratitude to all of the hands, minds, and hearts whose publicly shared knowledge, teachings and contributions were a part of this learning resource.
- We always love to hear from you! Please send your creations to education@sierraclub.bc.ca
- We invite you to start with one thing, just one action to help build a brighter future for the lands, waters and all who call them home.
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Photo Credits: Mya Van Woudenberg