The Ponce De Leon Inlet Light Station is highly regarded as one of the best-preserved and most-authentic lighthouse facilities in the country. The light station was officially declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998. This prestigious designation represents the culmination of decades of ongoing restoration and preservation work completed by the Ponce De Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association. Founded in 1972, the Association is a non-profit 401(c)(3) organization dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the maritime and social history of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.
In pursuance of this goal, the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum offers a wide variety of online educational resources for teachers to use including pre-and post-visit activities, suggested reading lists, and additional enrichment activities for the students to enjoy.
Pre-Visit Lesson Plans And Activities
Scheduling an educational tour of the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and Museum for your class or school? Make the most of your visit by preparing your students for the tour and subject matter using one or more of the pre-visit lessons below.
Developed by the museum’s professional staff and volunteer docents; many of whom are former teachers and school administrators themselves; Ponce Inlet Lighthouse lessons cover a variety of topics related to the lighthouse, maritime, and regional history. Integrated to allow educators the opportunity to explore history across the curriculum, pre-visit lessons are designed to address multiple learning styles to maximize student comprehension and understanding.
Available lesson downloads below include student handouts, answer keys, and lesson plan outlines for the teacher’s convenience:
Commonly Asked Lighthouse Questions
Post-Visit Activities
We hope you enjoyed your tour of the historic Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station. In an endeavor to provide students with the most meaningful lighthouse experience possible, the Preservation Association has developed a number of enrichment activities, below, for teacher and student use following their tour of the Lighthouse Museum.
We encourage all teachers to further develop their students’ understanding and appreciation of lighthouse, maritime, and local history with one of the post-visit activities below. Additional lesson plans and activities are also available on the Enrichment Activities page of this website.
As with all our educational programs, we encourage both teacher and student feedback and suggestions to better serve our community in the future. Please direct all comments and suggestions regarding your experience to the museum’s educational programs department via email at Education@ponceinlet.org.
Lighthouse Crossword Puzzle (Younger Students)
Lighthouse Crossword Puzzle (Older Students)
Crack The Secret Lighthouse Code
Enrichment Activities And Lesson Plans
In addition to online pre-and post-visit activities, the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse provides teachers with supplemental lessons that they can use to further explore the lighthouse and maritime history with their students. We invite you to review these online offerings which can be utilized individually or as part of an expanded focus unit.
Feedback regarding existing lessons offered by the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, or the need for lessons addressing topics not already covered, is encouraged. Please direct all educational related comments to the museum’s educational programs department via email at zhopple@ponceinlet.org.
Individual Lessons:
Write An Acrostic Lighthouse Poem
Expanded Focus Units:
Lighthouse Geography Focus Unit
Suggested Lighthouse Reading List
The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association recommends the following lighthouse-themed fiction and non-fiction books suitable for young readers:
By Title and Author
- A Light in the Wilderness by James D. Snyder
- Abbie Against the Storm by Marcia Vaughan
- Beacons of Light: Lighthouses by Gail Gibbons
- Birdie’s Lighthouse by Deborah Hopkinson
- Captain Angus, The Lighthouse Ghost by Wendy Laing
- Elin’s Island by Cynthia Copeland
- From the Lighthouse by Liz Chipman
- Gifts from the Sea by Natalie Warnock
- Keep the Lights, Burning Abbie, by Peter & Connie Roop
- Lighthouse Family: The Storm by Cynthia Rylant
- Lighthouse Family: The Turtle by Cynthia Rylant
- Moominpappa at Sea by Jove Jansson
- My Little Lighthouse by Alice Palace
- My Very Own Lighthouse by Francisco Cunha
- Nelly, The Lighthouse Cat by Stephanie and Nathan Szerdy
- Safely to Shore: America’s Lighthouses by Iris Van Rynbach
- The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor by Theodore Taylor
- The Light at Tern Rock by Julia L Sauer
- The Lighthouse Cat by Sue Stainton
- The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Arielle North Olson
- The Lighthouse Lullaby by Kelly Paul Briggs
- The Lightkeeper’s Daughter by Lain Lawrence
- The Lightkeeper’s Menagerie by Elinor DeWire
- The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift
- The Littlest Lighthouse by Ruth S. Sargent
- The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo
- The Waving Girl by J.B. Nicholas
- Who Sees the Lighthouse? by Ann Fearrington
- Women of the Lights by Candace Fleming
