Field Trips at the Yew
We love hosting school groups at the Yew Mountain Center! We have designed and run trips for pre-K through 8th grade and would be happy to work with high school and college groups. These trips have been offered for free to our local Pocahontas County Schools due to support from the Snowshoe Foundation, the Greenbrier Community Foundation, the Pocahontas County CVB, and generous private donors and volunteers. In 2019 we will offer field trips to school groups outside our home county. We work with teachers to create trips that connect to their learning objectives and create memorable, positive experiences in nature for all. Choose your adventure from this list below or let us design a new one for your students.
"The trip was well-organized and fun. Thank you for putting this together for our students!
On the Gruffalo’s Trail Language Arts and Science--Early Elementary
Following the trail of the imaginary beast, The Gruffalo, a character in a children’s book of the same name by Julia Donaldson, students learn about predator-prey relationships and animal habitats. They play a high-energy ecology game, make fox and mice finger puppet, and stage their own plays in our tiny theater. They create a 3-D map of the journey through the book. If they solve the riddles, they might just find the hiding place of the Gruffalo!
Living with the Land Social Studies--Upper Elementary, Middle School
Students navigate a course using hand-held GPS devices. They observe topography and natural resources available and create 3D maps of a settlement they would create there if they were pioneers. Imagining what life would have been like for the people who left behind cut foundation stones at an old home site, they write a letter to a relative living in another place. Students hike, canoe, and experience nature with interpretive guides who tell the stories of the landscape around them.
Wild About Math Math & Science--Upper Elementary, Middle School
Students navigate a compass course, practice estimation skills used in forestry, make art using the Fibonacci series and other patterns found in nature, learn about quantitative measures of water quality, and play a high energy game that simulates predator/prey relationships. They create graphs with the data from the rounds of the game.
Visiting My Side of the Mountain Language Arts & Science--Upper Elementary, Middle School.
This trip replicates experiences in the novel, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It is divided into two halves: Humanities and STEM. For the humanities half, students consider what it would feel like to be like the main character, Sam, alone in the wilderness, being sustained and entertained by the environment. They do a scavenger hunt based on the book, make nature art, explore a creek, and go on a solo hike (one of the highest rated activities.) For the STEM half, students consider the knowledge and skills Sam needs to survive in the forest alone. They learn about plants that give food and medicine and compare the pH of different species of foraged tree nuts after pounding them in to a paste as Sam does. They watch boil in a leaf on a campfire and use rushes to make weavings. A local falconer brings his trained harrier hawk and demonstrates it hunting a “rabbit” like Sam’s falcon, Frightful does in the novel.
Following the trail of the imaginary beast, The Gruffalo, a character in a children’s book of the same name by Julia Donaldson, students learn about predator-prey relationships and animal habitats. They play a high-energy ecology game, make fox and mice finger puppet, and stage their own plays in our tiny theater. They create a 3-D map of the journey through the book. If they solve the riddles, they might just find the hiding place of the Gruffalo!
Living with the Land Social Studies--Upper Elementary, Middle School
Students navigate a course using hand-held GPS devices. They observe topography and natural resources available and create 3D maps of a settlement they would create there if they were pioneers. Imagining what life would have been like for the people who left behind cut foundation stones at an old home site, they write a letter to a relative living in another place. Students hike, canoe, and experience nature with interpretive guides who tell the stories of the landscape around them.
Wild About Math Math & Science--Upper Elementary, Middle School
Students navigate a compass course, practice estimation skills used in forestry, make art using the Fibonacci series and other patterns found in nature, learn about quantitative measures of water quality, and play a high energy game that simulates predator/prey relationships. They create graphs with the data from the rounds of the game.
Visiting My Side of the Mountain Language Arts & Science--Upper Elementary, Middle School.
This trip replicates experiences in the novel, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It is divided into two halves: Humanities and STEM. For the humanities half, students consider what it would feel like to be like the main character, Sam, alone in the wilderness, being sustained and entertained by the environment. They do a scavenger hunt based on the book, make nature art, explore a creek, and go on a solo hike (one of the highest rated activities.) For the STEM half, students consider the knowledge and skills Sam needs to survive in the forest alone. They learn about plants that give food and medicine and compare the pH of different species of foraged tree nuts after pounding them in to a paste as Sam does. They watch boil in a leaf on a campfire and use rushes to make weavings. A local falconer brings his trained harrier hawk and demonstrates it hunting a “rabbit” like Sam’s falcon, Frightful does in the novel.
"This experience was innovative and kept students active and engaged."
"Thank you and all the others involved with this wonderful experience! I felt everything was very well planned and all adults did a great job with the students."
"Children learn from their experiences and YMC offers a unique, positive, way of learning about nature and their environment."
"I would love to bring students back next year."
"This was a great experience that the students will remember.Thank you for including us."
