Read the story and listen to it. Pay attention to the highlighted words â they are vocabulary words from the Yellowstone lesson. For a challenge, hide the story before you build the sentences.
On their first morning in Yellowstone, Rosalba and her grandson, Emeka, looked out at the wide landscape. A park ranger explained that the government established the park in 1872. She also said that Indigenous peoples lived in this region long before it became a park. In the visitor center, Emeka saw a sharp piece of black obsidian.
The ranger told him that people once used this volcanic glass to make tools. Later, she showed them a map of the huge caldera in the middle of the park. She explained that a giant eruption formed it about 631,000 years ago. Heat deep underground still warms the groundwater below the surface.
That afternoon, they watched Old Faithful, the park's most famous geyser, shoot hot water into the air. Rosalba read that the park has more than 10,000 hydrothermal features. Near the boardwalk, they saw a meadow that was a habitat for bison and elk. Before they left, Emeka said that conservation would protect the park for future visitors.