Thanksgiving Virtual Field Trip Brings More than a Million Students Nationwide to Plimoth Plantation on November 16, 2010

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Almost a million students will visit historic Plimoth Plantation in a little over a week, and thanks to technology, not one of them will leave the classroom.

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Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, will host a live virtual field trip to Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass., on November 16, 2010 at 1 p.m. Called "The First Thanksgiving," the free webcast event will feature presentations and interviews with Colonial and Wampanoag role players and give students opportunities to ask questions, answer polls and gain a deeper understanding about the holiday.

Teachers, librarians, parents and anyone who loves the Thanksgiving holiday can register online for the webcast at www.scholastic.com/thanksgiving.  More than 30,000 classrooms in schools nationwide, totaling more than 1 million students, have already registered to participate.

"Every year, children all across the country study the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving in their classrooms, and Scholastic has been providing Thanksgiving lesson plans, activities and other resources on our site for teachers to download for free," said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer of Scholastic. "This special live webcast, also free, will make the experience even more interactive and engaging for students and spark important conversations and learning moments around the history of this tradition, its significance to our society and how the various cultures in this country have both incorporated and influenced this uniquely American holiday."

"As an educational institution and an authority on 17th-century Colonial and Wampanoag history, Plimoth Plantation is delighted to team up with Scholastic to bring the real story of Thanksgiving to life for more than a million students all across the country," said Ellie Donovan, Executive Director of Plimoth Plantation. "Although our museum teachers visit schools all across the country and host field trips at home in Plymouth, this is the first time we have had the opportunity to reach this many students all at once. It is very exciting."

"The First Thanksgiving" is the latest in Scholastic's ongoing series of live virtual field trips designed to give students everywhere a chance to visit unique places around the country and help schools make subjects like science, social studies and math come to life. Last Spring, students in thousands of schools took a Scholastic virtual field trip with Ms. Frizzle and The Magic School Bus to Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, and before that, they visited Winter the Dolphin at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida.

The topic of Thanksgiving is one of the most widely-taught units in elementary schools in the U.S., and the resources available on Scholastic.com are among the most popular and frequently-downloaded from the site every year.

For more information about Scholastic, visit our Media Room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.  

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Francie Alexander

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SOURCE Scholastic Corporation