Yellowstone National Park Fun Facts for Kids & Educational Resources

Do you and your children long to travel and see the World? Have you considered checking out some of the amazing sites in America first? Learn about Yellowstone with these free resources and Yellowstone National Park facts for kids.

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Yellowstone National Park

There is so much here to see and explore in our very own country. Visiting a national park is an amazing way to get up close to nature and see things you would not normally encounter every day in your city or town.

Yellowstone National Park Facts for Kids

Yellowstone National Park is the very first national park that was established in North America. On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. This act protected the headwaters of the Yellowstone River from being developed and with it, the world’s first national park was born.

Where is Yellowstone National Park located?

Yellowstone National Park is mainly located in Wyoming, but it extends over to Montana and Idaho. A park that covers 3 states is pretty large. It has over 2 million acres of wilderness and wildlife to be explored in about 3,500 square miles.

What is Yellowstone Famous for?

Yellowstone is most famous for its waterfalls, boiling mud pots, interesting geothermal features and Old Faithful, the famous geyser that erupts like clockwork daily.

This park has many big animals such as: grizzly bears, black bears, bighorn sheep, moose, mule deer, thousands of wild bison and packs of gray wolves. There are also many species of birds including the bald eagle who is a recovered endangered species.

Fun Facts About Yellowstone National Park

• It is home to Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest active geyser.
• It sits on top of an active volcano. The Yellowstone Caldera is the size of Rhode Island. 
• The Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the largest hot springs in the world and located here. 
• Yellowstone National Park is so large that it is located in 3 different states.
• The highest point in the park is at 11,358 feet. This high elevation is located at Eagle Peak.
• Wolves were reintroduced to the park in the 90’s to help the ecosystem.
• Each year there are 1,000 -3,000 earthquakes within the park.
• There are over 290 waterfalls.
• This park is home to over 300 active geysers.
• Within the park are over 1800 archaeological sites.

Yellowstone Family Vacation

If you love beautiful, natural wonders, and wildlife, Yellowstone should definitely be on your bucket list to visit with your family one day.

I have wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park since I was a little girl. My husband visited on a family trip when he was a child, and he still talks about what an amazing trip it was.

He has wonderful memories of what they saw when they were there and said he’ll never forget it. Unfortunately, it is a cross-country trip for us, and just seems unattainable at the moment. Luckily, there are so many amazing videos, websites, books, and studies that can help you feel like you are really there.

I think your children will really love doing a unit study on Yellowstone National Park and the animals and wonders that reside there.

Yellowstone National Park Educational Resources

If you are looking for fun ways to incorporate the study of national parks into your homeschool day, there are lots of resources you can use, from notebooking to lapbooks, worksheets, and unit studies. 

Recommended Resource: National Parks Notebook – A Notebook Companion™ for National Parks of the U.S.A. Take a trip around the national parks of the U.S.A with our publisher-approved Notebook Companion™. Using the notebook alongside the popular book book National Parks of the U.S.A. will help you squeeze all the amazing content out of it and use it for your homeschool.

Yellowstone Noteboooking & Lapbooks

Yellowstone National Park Lapbook – A lapbook is a wonderful way to keep a visual of what you are learning and working on in school. This lapbook is all about Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone Notebooking Page – This notebooking page would be a great way for your kids to write down what they have learned while studying about the Yellowstone National Park. If they have ever visited, they could use it as a journaling page to write down their thoughts on what they saw.

U.S. Natural Landmarks 31 Page Notebooking Journal – This notebooking journal will take your kids on an adventure to discover 30 natural landmarks found in the United States including Yellowstone. Your kids will do some research and record their facts in their own notebooking journal. 

Yellowstone National Park Worksheets

Yellowstone National Park Fact Work Sheet – This is a simple facts sheet with lots of interesting facts about the park. This would be great to put in a notebook to keep track of everything you are learning while doing your unit study.

Yellowstone Checklists and Itinerary

Yellowstone National Park in 3 Days Free Printable Itinerary – This 3 day itinerary will help you create a very doable plan of things to do and see with your family when you visit the park. Start with a visit to the visitor center to pick up the junior ranger packets so your kids can answer the questions along the way, and get their own badge at the end of the trio.

Printable Yellowstone Checklist – This checklist will help you to keep track of what you have seen and done, and what you still need to see in the park. Just check if off as you complete it. 

My Yellowstone Park. – Plan out your trip to Yellowstone National Park with all these free resources. There is a trip planner, as well as photos, travel guides and tons of information on where to stay and what to see and do.

Science Experiments and Activities

Old Faithful Geyser Experiment – Create your very own Old Faithful and get it to erupt with this fun hands-on experiment.

Classroom Curriculum Materials – The national park service has some amazing unit studies and educational resources to learn about the parks. Learn about the geology and archaeology of the park, and use a formula that the rangers use to predict when Old Faithful will erupt. There are even step-by-step instructions on science experiments and lots of lesson plans on animals and wildlife resources. 

What is a geyser?

A geyser is a rare type of hot spring that is constantly under pressure. When it erupts it sends jets of hot water and steam high up into the air like a volcanic eruption.

Geysers are created from a tube shaped hole in the earth that runs into the crust. The tube fills with water which is heated by the molten rock magma that is underneath. Eventually, the water gets so hot that it begins to boil and turn into a steam gas which then erupts high into the air.

Resources about Geysers

Hydrothermal Features – Learn about the hydrothermal features and the geysers that are located in the park. There are more than 10,000 of them. There are hot springs, mudpots, geysers, steam vents and travertine terraces all over the park. 

Life in Extreme Heat – Read up on thermophiles, the amazing organisms that live in Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features. These are what create the vivid pink, yellow and red colors found within the park. Many people think that the colors are from mineral deposits, but they are actually living organisms. 

Wildlife of Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is just as famous for its wildlife as it is for its geysers. The park has an amazing animal relationship with the ecosystem and the earth. The hydrothermal basins provide an important habitat for many of the wildlife, especially in the winter months.

Some of the bison do not migrate and stay in the park year round in the area of Old Faithful. This is because they are able to stay warm because of the warmth coming up from the ground surrounding it. 

It has the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states. There are 67 species of mammals, 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, 6 species of reptiles, 5 species of amphibians, and more than 7 aquatic nuisance species found in this park.

Two threatened species call this park home – The Canada lynx and Grizzly bears. Wolverines are also a proposed threatened species that reside here. 

Yellowstone Animals

Wildlife Watching – Find out the best places to watch the different types of wildlife at locations throughout the park. Learn about the best times of day and seasons to see certain animals you may want to spot.

Mammals of Yellowstone – Learn about the many different mammals in the park. These are all broken down by: carnivores, ungulates, rodents, hares, rabbits, pika and bats. Click on each photo of the animal to get detailed information, facts and information on how many are in the park.

Reintroduction of Grey Wolves to Yellowstone National Park Power Point Presentation – This Power Point presentation presents the story of the gray wolf reintroduction program to the park in the 90s. This makes for a great introduction on ecosystems and the balance as well as learning about wolves and how important they are to an ecosystem.

Yellowstone National Park Wolf Pack Maps and Mini Unit – Learn about the different wolf packs located throughout the park and track them on the map. This free lesson and printables will go perfect with a unit study on ecosystems and wolves.

Printable Fact Sheets for Animals of Yellowstone National Park  – There are 23 different colored printables for many of the most seen animals in Yellowstone. There is a colored picture of the animal with detailed fact sheets and spots to write down what you have learned from the reading.

Gray Wolf in Yellowstone – As of December 2021, 95 wolves and 8 wolf packs were found in the park. Find out about how the wolves are so important to the ecosystem of the park and learn about their behaviors and where to see them. 

Bird Checklist – There have been over 300 bird species sightings in the park. Careful records are kept on breeding and nesting as well as records for threatened species such as the golden eagle, trumpeter swan and common loon. Download a free bird checklist of all the birds that you could see in the park. 

 Yellowstone National Park Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are amazing, especially when you are at home for a prolonged amount of time, and can’t get out to explore. They provide a nice, mental escape from the everyday. Virtual tours also give your children the opportunity to explore an amazing place that they may never get a chance to visit due to cost or location.

National Park Service Virtual Tours – Visit 8 of the most popular sites of Yellowstone National Park with these virtual tours.

Yellowstone National Park Virtual Tour – This is a virtual tour and interactive map from PBS. Click on the map for the spot that you would like to view and you can download a movie and video of that spot from the map.

Visit Yellowstone Virtually with Yellowstone Forever – They have links to Yellowstone webcams, a video library, art activities, blogs, and podcasts all about the park.

Yellowstone National Park Google Earth View – This is a great Google Earth View broken down by different spots in the park. Click on them on the map to zoom in and see the views.

Yellowstone Video Series – These mini documentaries take you directly into the park as if you were really there. Learn about the gray wolves, wildlife safety, geological features of the park and more. 

In Conclusion

If a trip to Yellowstone wasn’t on your bucket list before, it probably is now. It’s a beautiful national park with so much to see and discover. For homeschoolers, it’s like one huge field trip with so many science topics to study!