5 Free and Fun School Trip Ideas
17 October 2016
There’s no denying that school trips provide students with some of their best memories from their time in school.
But unfortunately for students and teachers, due to restrictions on time and budget, they’re often few and far between. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t make use of what you’ve got and create a barrage load of experiences that will stick with your students forever.
Check out our top five school trip ideas that come without the budget, but still with fun and excitement:
1. Get to know the community on your doorstep
Spending most of their time in the classroom, kids enjoy almost anything that spices up the same dreary routine. And with a whole school to explore, along with the interesting community of workers that come with it, including cafeteria workers, caretakers, and secretaries, you can have an exciting school trip without even leaving the grounds.
You can start by getting your students to write up a list of questions to ask the staff. Then, simply head out to each department to find out how they keep the school running.
2. Make a friend and explore a fictional world
One of the more unconventional and controversial ideas for a school trip on a budget is to dive into a good work of fiction. However, if you combine this with a Reading Buddies program, in which your students visit the classroom of pupils in lower grades, it can be a really exciting and educational trip.
The Reading Buddies program gives students a chance to make new friends, improve their reading skills, develop their self-esteem, and of course a break from the normal pattern of out-loud reading.
3. Discover the world beyond the walls
The school field and playground are often underutilised parts of the school. The valuable outside space which offers different terrains, plants, and wildlife, is its own microcosm of nature, that has so much more to offer students than first meets the eye.
You can take your students outside to simply play some games, or, you could take them on an archaeological dig and see what each of them can find, learning about everything from types of rocks and plants to the over one million different species of insect life.
4. Dive into the wires on an imaginary trip
With the capability of computers and the internet today, it wouldn’t be right not to make use of their incredible potential to transport us around the world. One fun way to do this is by planning an imaginary trip to your student's ideal destinations. If your students aren’t sure where they’d like to go, ask them what sort of environment and things they want to see, for example, the beach, exotic animals, the rainforest, huge skyscrapers, or vast mountain ranges. You can then suggest some places, and they can use the internet and a library search to find a plane or train ticket, a place to stay, and make a list of what they will need to take and what they are going to do.
5. Bring new experiences to the classroom
How about not leaving the classroom to seek new experiences, but bringing the experiences to the classroom? Chances are there are many members of the community, such as nurses, the police, journalists, and firefighters, who are more than happy to give up some of their time to share with your students.
The visitors can discuss the ins and outs of their jobs and how they worked really hard in class to get to where they are. Students can do research on the profession in advance, and make a list of questions they want to ask. This can be an amusing experience for both the visitor and teacher, and an invaluable opportunity that may make a lasting impression on students.
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