Field Trip to Volcano Island Activity

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Maureen Schlosser

Field Trip to Volcano Island Summary

Imagine going on a field trip to a volcanic island. What would you expect to find? If you joined the class in John Hare’s book, Field Trip to Volcano Island, you might see lava monsters!

The wordless story takes place in the future. A class leaves their floating, self-sustaining school on a helicopter. They make their way to Volcano Island.

Upon arrival, the class discovers a crater of boiling lava and an active geyser. One student finds beautiful flowers. He collects the flowers while trailing behind his classmates.

When a strong wind blows his flowers into the crater, the boy goes after them. He slides down into the volcano. He retrieves his flowers, but now he’s stuck.

The boy is alone at the bottom of the volcano. Or is he? Volcanic monsters appear. How will the boy save his beautiful flowers and get back to his classmates?

Field Trip to Volcano Island is an incredible, wordless adventure. It’s amazing how the gorgeous illustrations convey such an imaginative story. Readers will want to soak in every bit of this work of art. Fans of previous Field Trip books will love the last page. Here, we see the main characters from Field Trip to the Moon and Field Trip to the Ocean Deep.

Inside pages of the book Field Trip to Volcano Island by John Hare. In it, we see students dressed in fire safe outfits exploring a volcano.

Field Trip to Volcano Island Activity

AASL Standards Framework for Learners: Inquire/Create I.B.3. Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes generating products that illustrate learning.

Introduce Field Trip to Volcano Island as a wordless book. Ask learners what they already know about books without words. Discuss what it might take for an author to tell a story with illustrations.

Tell learners that you’ll read the book together twice. First, everyone will pay close attention to what the illustrations convey. Discuss the story after the first reading.

Next, map out the structure of the story while reading the story a second time. Record the structure on a dry erase board or chart paper.

Then, introduce Field Trip to the Moon and Field Trip to the Ocean Deep. Tell learners that you will read the books together. Their job is to notice if the books follow the same structure as Field Trip to Volcano Island.

Give learners an opportunity to brainstorm the next Field Trip book. Direct them to sketch out ideas using the same structure in John Hare’s books. Watch author/illustrator John Hare describe his sketching process to inspire learners.