When there isn’t time or money in the budget to take students on frequent field trips, a little creativity can provide the refreshing learning possibilities of field trips within the walls of your classroom. Take full advantage of the resources within your school building and classroom to give your students a much-needed “staycation.”
Here are some classroom field trip ideas.
Work Stations
Consider rearranging the room into different work stations. Provide hands-on manipulatives, or a fresh task at each station. Consider using online assignments, listening stations, writing stations, or other engaging ways for students to reach their learning objectives. Remember to prepare the students to treat the day as a field trip. It may be within the walls of their regular classroom, but the journey is all new.
Go Virtual
Want to discover the paintings of the Renaissance? Take a trip across the Great Wall of China? How about discover the wildlife of the rain forest? All these field trips are available thanks to the internet. Find a website or multiple sites that offers videos and images of the place you want your students to see. Set up their expectations that this is a “virtual field trip,” where they will be watching videos, hearing audio, or seeing pictures of these places. It’s all in the presentation and the enthusiasm you create.
Swap Rooms
When you sense the excitement and engagement from your students weakening, a great way to shake things up is to swap classrooms with another teacher. Even if just for day, a change in scenery can go a long way. Pitch it to your students as an in-school field trip to a new learning environment.