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Field trips
Students in an early childhood classroom tend to be visual learners. Field trips give students the opportunity to observe subject matter in new environments rather than through books and movies.
More-advantaged families may take their children to cultural institutions outside of school, but disadvantaged students often do not have the same ability to experience things outside of their immediate community. Field trips are an excellent avenue for promoting new learning opportunities to my students.
Exposure to knowledge about the world around them increases students’ tolerance, empathy, and helps them see themselves as part of a bigger world. Class excursions can provide this exposure and inspire kids to endeavor outside their comfortable immediate environment.
I select excursions that are aligned with different parts of our curriculum. I use field trips as an extension of what we are learning in the classroom. These outings provide my students with a chance to see what we are learning about in action and apply their knowledge.
Field Trip To the Zoo
Children absorb an enormous amount of knowledge when visiting a zoo. They will use all of their senses to observe their surroundings and enhance their understanding of animals and habitats. They will learn the way an animal smells, the sounds animals make, the way animals look and feel, and witness what animals need to stay alive. Zoos offer a true multi-sensory approach to learning. While having a fun day exploring, students in my class develop valuable skills and obtain priceless knowledge. I love witnessing the wonder and amazement in my students’ eyes as they see an animal for the first time! Their faces brighten and their smiles come alive as they point to each animal in excitement.
The Baltimore Zoo cost eight dollars per student and eleven dollars per chaperone. A bus to take us from our school to the zoo would cost an additional ten dollars per student. This is completely out of the affordable range for my students and their families. In order to ensure all students could attend this field trip at no cost, I completed an application with Baltimore Zoo showing that my students are eligible for free admission.
In order to get my school to provide financial assistance for the transportation to the zoo, I have to prove to my administration that the trip had educational value. I supplied the principal with a unit plan that would accentuate the knowledge they would gain from going on this field trip.
With the admission and transportation costs covered, I was able to ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate in this valuable experience.
I still needed to ensure that my students could gain as much knowledge as possible from the experience. It’s important for students to be able to classify different animals and recognize the similarities and differences between them. In order to create a hands-on experience for my students, I asked them if they would like to create a pretend zoo in our room and the answer was a very enthusiastic YES!
The students and I discussed that we would want to make the zoo realistic so that the Pre-K students would be able to learn from our classroom exhibits. The students created a plan. My class would bring realistic animal toys to school and we would create a zoo with them. We would make signs to tell visitors all about the animals. To do that, we would have to learn all about the animals and about the classification of each animal in order to group them into different exhibits, just like a real zoo.
Understanding the idea of classification aided my students when they took their field trip to the zoo. This provided the additional vocabulary students used when articulating their thoughts.
To the left, you will find the unit plan I created for all kindergarten and first-grade teachers to follow in the week prior to the field trip. This was created to prepare students for the field trip and for them to be able to access information while at the Baltimore Zoo.
To the right, you will see student work from each day of the unit plan I created. Students were incredibly engaged throughout this science unit. They were just as excited to create their own zoo and provide the Pre-K students with access to an enriching experience as they were to actually go to the Baltimore Zoo and explore for themselves.
To the left, you will see a letter I send home to parents explaining the field trip and what students have been learning in class. I also was able to give them ideas for other places to explore around Baltimore. Many parents have expressed to me that they do not know what educational resources are available for them and their children in Baltimore. By providing them this information, they will be more likely to expose their child to new learning activities.
Field Trip Reflections
I am grateful that my administration and the Baltimore Zoo were able to cover the entire cost related to this trip. By ensuring that there was no cost for families to attend the field trip to the Baltimore Zoo, I was able to get one hundred percent participation from my students. For many of my students, it was the first time they have been to a zoo. Although the Baltimore Zoo is located twenty minutes away from Tench Tilghman, it feels like there is a large barrier between the city due to most students lacking access to transportation and admission money. There are many valuable learning opportunities available in Baltimore for my students to explore. I hoped that this initial exposure to the zoo would broaden my students' perspectives and motivate them to convince their families to seek out new experiences to learn.
Following this field trip, I sent a letter home to families to share what students experienced at the Baltimore Zoo. I also informed them of other educational sites around Baltimore that they could explore with their child. Some of my students' parents asked me about different sights on the list that sent home. A few parents expressed gratitude for encouraging them to visit these sites and said they planned to seek out more educational opportunities to explore for their child over the summer.
My hope is by researching educational programs and resources around Baltimore, I will help expose students and their families to new experiences. I hope my students and their families to feel empowered and motivated to explore the city they live in and to find new educational opportunities they have never considered. These steps will make my students become college and career ready by teaching them how to become independent and learning how to take the initiative to further their own education outside of school.