Fun and Fact-Filled Field Trips

When I was a kid, field trips happened once a year, usually in June, mostly as a "reward" for finishing the academic year.  The small school I went to in New Jersey alternated between to destinations each year:  The Philadelphia Zoo and The Franklin Institute.  And although I enjoyed these trips each time, I have few memories of them beyond going in the giant walk-through heart at the Institute.  As an adult, I wonder now if it was because these trips had little to no connection to what was happening daily in the classroom, so they made no connection in my mind, and so they were easily forgotten.

As the Abbot School counselor, I have the privilege of joining classrooms on their field trips on occasion.  I'm always amazed at the background knowledge that the kids bring with them on these trips, and how much more new knowledge they take home with them.  It's obvious that the connection between the curriculum learned in the classroom and the information learned on the field trips makes it a fun, hands-on way to enhance that curriculum.  And, besides adding fun to an already action-packed day at school, field trips offer your children other benefits as well.

*  Field trips offer students a chance to approach knowledge in a new way. Some children may be exposed to events, sights, and activities that they otherwise may never experience.  Such field trips may ignite a new passion or interest that the child can then pursue, and which the child may have never considered before.

*  Field trips provide hands-on learning for children. Immersing themselves into their immigrant identities, our fourth grade students learned first hand what the experience of arriving at Ellis Island was like during their Immigration Day in-house field trip.  Similarly, our third grade students adopted alternate identitites for the day when visiting Parkerville School. When the fifth grade students went to Lexington and Concord, a multimedia production enveloped them into Paul Revere's historic ride.  Experiences like this bring the curriculum to life, and offer multi-sensory experiences;  when students hear, see, watch, and do what they are learning, it is much more meaningful.

*  Field trips are an opportunity to put knowledge into practice. Fifth graders were given the task of creating a vehicle designed to carry cargo down an incline on one of their field trips.  Fourth graders were asked to complete an animal scavenger hunt on their recent trip to the zoo, and third graders observed, experimented with, and kept journals on plant life and rocks during their trips to the Living Lab.  All of these tasks (and others) relate directly to their curriculum.

*  Field trips have non-academic benefits as well. There are many social benefits of field trips:  offering non-structured time for children to interact and get to know one another, team building challenges and cooperative skills are often involved, and students have the opportunity to bond over experiences that happened on the trip.  Additionally, the break in the routine can be nice for all involved.