Every school has their traditional string of field trips that every teacher uses every year. There’s a reason these trips stay around: they’re a known commodity and probably easy to set up. That’s why if you want to spice up the field trip schedule next year, you want to start now. Spend some time and visit these fresh ideas by yourself (or with your own kids), so all of your prep work is done before school starts.
Manufacturing facility
Do you and your students like the show How It’s Made? Most cities and towns have a company making something, usually with some sort of assembly line. The kids would love a tour, if only just to watch things go around a conveyor belt.
The newspaper
Along the same lines, a field trip to the newspaper can have both a conveyor belt (for printing) and lots of interesting people to talk to. Newspapers love hosting kids because they don’t think students read the paper anymore.
Post office
Yes, another conveyor belt (if you go to the right post office). All kids usually know about the mail is that it shows up every day. They’d love to see how that happens. In larger cities with multiple post offices, you want to go to a Main Post Office (MPO). That’s where all the cool sorting with machinery takes place.
Geocaching
Geocaching is a scavenger hunt using GPS and other technology made available with phones. You simply download the app and it guides you. Find somewhere with a lot of caches (parks are usually a safe bet) and let the kids go wild.
National Weather Service
There likely is a NWS radar station not too far from you. They would be happy to let the kids see how they predict the weather.
The Airport
Believe it or not, many kids have yet to have taken a trip on an airplane. The airport is a fascinating place to get a behind the scenes tour because there are so many facets to running one other than planes and luggage, like security and food preparation.
What is your favorite field trip destination?
