With the end of the school year arriving, now is the time to plan your summer vacation. The National Park Service can help! The Park Service was established on August 25, 1916 and is celebrating its 100th anniversary by working to get “Every Kid in a Park.”
The program is simple. All fourth grade students and members of their family can get into national park sites for free during the entire year! Students can get their pass and plan their trips at the Every Kid in a Park site.
Visiting national park sites in Kansas is easy and it does not require a pass because there is no fee to get into any of the five national park sites in Kansas. Below is a list of NPS sites in Kansas:
- Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
Topeka, KS - Fort Larned National Historic Site
Larned, KS - Fort Scott National Historic Site
Fort Scott, KS - Nicodemus National Historic Site
Nicodemus, KS - Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Strong City, KS
If you are able to travel beyond the borders of Kansas, just take your park pass to any NPS site to gain free entrance into any national park!
You can go to Every Kid in a Park to discover how to get to some of America’s most treasured places, like Yellowstone in Wyoming or the Grand Canyon in Arizona, or some of the hidden gems of the Park Service, such as Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front in California or the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park in Maryland. Whether you want to experience history, recreation, nature, or solitude, there is a national park for you.
Teachers shouldn’t forget the very cool Teaching with Historic Places that uses properties listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of lessons, products, and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.
So fourth graders, teachers, and parents take advantage of your summer break and visit your national parks through the “Every Kid in a Park” program!
Because no matter who you are, no matter where you live, our parks, our monuments, our lands, our waters — these places are your birthright as Americans.”
Enjoy Your Summer!
Nicholas Murray
Education Specialist
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site