SCHERERVILLE | Students at Peifer Elementary School on Tuesday found a way around the budget and time constraints that can hinder field trip opportunities.

The field trip came to them.

The Shedd Aquarium brought an interactive lesson about the Amazon rain forest to children at the school.

Shedd science educators Jennifer Roth and Jackie Formoso -- a Peifer alumna -- led students on a virtual trip along the Amazon River in the school's former music room.

After watching a movie about the Amazon, students moved in pairs in imaginary canoes, stopping to point at stuffed animal snakes, monkeys and iguanas along the way.

The students learned that their collective finger snapping, clapping and knee slapping can sound like different types of rainfall. They helped use stilts to move a model rain forest house to higher ground to avoid rising river levels.

Principal Doug DeLaughter said grant money paid for the Shedd educational experience at the school.

Budgets are tight, and because field trip buses need to be back to school by 12:30 p.m., that doesn't leave much time for students to visit the Shedd in Chicago, he said.

Studying rain forests is part of the second-grade curriculum.

Second-grade teacher Donna Mauder snapped pictures of her students as they shook rain sticks slowly and then quickly to simulate a drizzle to a downpour. A professional photographer also took pictures of the students because they could be included in an upcoming Shedd brochure, Mauder said.

At the end of the session, Formoso invited each student to visit the full-size replica of the rain forest house at the Shedd Aquarium. Each student received a free pass to the Shedd, valid for themselves, two friends and two adults. The coupons don't expire, Formoso said.