Free and low-cost field trips are all that most classes can afford. The days of expensive trips to far away locations are long over and most children never get an opportunity to leave their school building. If money is tight for field trips in your school, check out the ideas below to help expand your students’ real-world experiences.
3 Ideas for Free and Low-Cost Field Trip Experiences
1. A Virtual Field Trip with Skype
With a webcam, a microphone, and a computer, you can talk with another class ten miles away or around the world. ePals, an online pen pal matching service for educators and their classrooms, now allows you to sort their listings by classrooms that like to Skype. It is free to have an online video conference and it is a great way to expand your students’ knowledge of different areas and cultures.
2. Bring the Field Trip to You
For some students and teachers, traveling to the gym for a speaker feels like a field trip instead of just an assembly. Take advantage of local groups, organizations, and educational speakers and storytellers who are willing to come into the classroom or auditorium and share with your students. A local puppeteer or a representative from the local fire company make great speakers and can expose your students to the outside world without having to leave the building.
3. Free Field Trips
A great resource for free field trips in your local area is The Field Trip Factory. They help organize and arrange field trips to local businesses that offer special programs for students. Since the rising cost of bus transportation is always an issue, they offer suggestions for bus funding and even have some sponsors that completely fund the field trip – bus and all!
What are some of the ways you expose your students to the world around them using free or low-cost field trips or in-school programs? Share with us below!
Ann says
Target has field trip grants for up to $700. Each store gives away 3 grants each school year. Application process begins in August and you get notified/check beginnning of January.