Virtual Field Trip: Yellowstone National Park

One of our small group activities is Sleuth Reading. We read closely like investigators to learn how to analyze difficult text. One of our texts was on the wild life at Yellowstone National Park. I even got to share about my trip to Yellowstone many years ago and told a funny story about a great big Buffalo encounter- ramming into its reflection outside my hotel window. The students were completely absorbed and wanted to know more, much more. So we took some time later in the day to do some of our own research. We decided to take a virtual field trip!! We went to the Yellowstone National Park web site to do some further investigations. We covered map skills of the Park's location and layout. We investigated different animals and the different habitats within the park. We also learned about the different land forms- some very unique to only Yellowstone National Park. Students were most curious to learn about geysers, including Old Faithful. What they are, how they work, and how Old Faithful got it's name. There was even a live web cam on the famous geyser. We had it on our big screen the rest of the afternoon while we completed some other work just hoping to see it erupt. It was getting close to time to go home with no activity to be seen. As we were beginning to pack up to leave the students started screaming with excitement!!!!! THERE SHE BLOWS!!! With no time to spare we were able to see Old Faithful erupt live right in our classroom, well sort of! :) The students were thrilled and as a teacher it was a great moment!! Sometimes the best  learning experiences happen outside of the lesson plan and I am thankful the students were able to see this. Maybe one day they will get to see it in person. :)