Mommio: Visit Our National Park!

For our first unit study lesson today we learned all about how/when/why the National Park system started and what it takes to create a National Park.  Then, the really fun part, we worked as a team to create our own new National Park.

First the kids decided where the park would be located- on the border of Nebraska and Kansas, so that it would be right in the middle of the USA and easy to get to.  Next they thought of the important natural features that would attract people to their park.  These included a very deep lake surrounded by bamboo forests and a large population of native panda bears, an equally large population of wild buffalo roaming in fields, a dormant volcano that is so huge it is all covered in snow and ice at the top and the most important part of the park- Split Tree.  Split Tree is the largest tree in the world with a trunk that is 7 miles in diameter and has two giant arms that split off from it.  It used to be the home to Native American tribes that lived within the tree making a complex cave system that runs through the branches, trunk and roots of the massive tree.  Visitors to the park can take tours of the cave system and look at the ancient art on the walls of the caves.  As an added attraction, Split Tree offers a seven mile long zipline ride across the top of the tree.  Creative, huh?  So after the planning stages the kids used our Heroscape map parts to build a map.

 After getting the land part the way they wanted it they added all the important things- campsites, bathrooms, trails, welcome center and more.  Here is the completed map- they decided the scale- one block of the map equals one square mile, so it is a pretty big park.  The buffalo live in the big open, grassy area and the pandas live around the lake in the bamboo forest.

The white strings are hiking trails, the blue and black legos are roads (they only allow golf carts in the park), the yellow and red legos are various buildings.  Each buffalo picture represents 30 buffalo, each panda picture represents a panda family and each tent is a campsite.  Here is a closer look at the features of Split Tree Park.

This is Split Tree.  Notice the zipline across the top and the cave entrance at the bottom.  And the strategically placed restroom at the base of the tree.

Here is the volcano with hiking trails up to the top for a great view for brave hikers, and another well-placed restroom.

This is the welcome center which includes a museum about the Native Americans who used to live in Split Tree and a gift shop/bookstore.  All ranger led programs also start at the welcome center, and of course there is another large bathroom to be found here.

In the distance you can see the dining hall- which is a 24 hour cafeteria style eating area open to all guests and employees with basic food like hamburgers and french fries.  There is also a very large bathroom/shower complex located near the dining hall.

Now for a closer look at the area surrounding the lake.  All along the shore there are campsites, each of the 44 sites is one square mile and can accommodate up to 16 people.  The campsites have access to the lake for swimming, fishing and boating.  They are also located among the dense bamboo forests (all those little toothpicks) so the sites are very private and campers will always see wild pandas surrounding them.  There are also plenty of restrooms and hiking trails close to the campsites.

That's what the park looks like.  After the map was complete we had to work together to answer some important questions about our park.

 

Thanks for visiting our park!