Here are some worksheets to print ahead of time and have students bring on a clipboard:

Have a long drive with students to get to your destination? These car games can help them stay entertained.

Field Trip Tips

Here are some simple ways to make your field trips less stressful.

Planning:

• Find out when starting at a new school or moving to a new grade how the school handles planning field trips:
  • Are trips planned by the office, grade team, or individual teachers?
  • Are trips paid for out of a school budget, or only by parents?
  • Is there a minimum or maximum number of field trips you are expected to take each year?
  • Are there field trips your grade traditionally takes each year?
  • Are permission slips sent home on paper or done electronically?
• When planning a longer field trip, check if any students need medicine administered during those hours, and if so, how that should be handled.
• Check online to see if there is a virtual tour (whether official or just someone’s Go Cam) that you can watch ahead of time to familiarize yourself with a new location.
• Which science and social studies topics do you expect to cover each season? Find local museums and other venues that apply and check that the activities you are interested in are feasible in the season in which they would be on topic.
• Ask your fellow teachers what locations they recommend. If they have been to a location you are planning to visit, ask for what they liked and what they would do differently on another trip.
• See if your fellow teachers would be interested in contributing to an online spreadsheet to keep all field trip information in one location. This can be constantly updated as new locations are discovered/tried out.

Location	Address	Phone #	Contact Person	Website	Distance from School	Activities	Time Needed	Notes

Chaperones:

• Find out when starting at a new school or moving to a new grade how the school handles chaperones:
  • Are only staff members allowed to be chaperones?
  • Is there a way to keep chaperone roles evenly distributed among parents?
  • Does a class parent handle recruiting and choosing chaperones?
  • Are chaperones asked/allowed to drive students?
  • If the class is taking a bus, are chaperones allowed to drive their own children to and from the location?
  • If there are more volunteers than needed, are extra chaperones allowed to “tag along,” if paying for their own admission?
• Make chaperone duties clear ahead of time and in writing.
• Ensure chaperones are aware they are expected to wear seatbelts on the bus after making sure students have them.
• Hand each chaperone an information packet with:
  • their instructions
  • a map of the location
  • your schedule
  • contact information for you/the school/the bus driver
  • which students they are in charge of watching
  • a pen or pencil (and pencils for students if they have their own assignments)
  • consider putting all of this on a clipboard, or in a plastic zip bag
• If spreading out in a museum (even if everyone is on one floor), it may be best to assign an even number of students to each chaperone. If doing this, write the students’ names (and if possible, include a picture) on a piece of paper that is attached to their instructions.
• Instead of full-size pages, it might be easier to print smaller copies and then put them into a plastic ID holder on a lanyard.

Go Bag

Make sure you are prepared for anything while you are out. Pack a bag with these items:

• tissues
• bandages
• bags in case of car sickness (you can use a roll of disposable doggie bags, or order the kind the keep on airplanes)
• paper towels
• plastic gloves
• two trash bags
• water
• sanitizer
• your Field Trip Binder with:
  • emergency contact information for students
  • health information for students
  • tickets/confirmation email for location
  • chaperone information
  • schedule
  • bus seating chart/buddy list
  • list of car games to keep students entertained

Since many locations include a playground, plan for this time. There may be many other children at the same time and it can be easy to lose track of your group when they are constantly running in different directions. Have chaperones keep an eye on all children while positioning themselves in front of exits, while you check off a master list of all children. For example:

Amy	x	x	x
Daniel	x	x	x
Yu Min	x	x	x
Maria	x	x	x
Ricardo	x	x
Lani	x	x
Damien	x	x
Darnell	x	x
Jaime	x	x
Ezekiel	x	x
Fatima	x	x
Leah	x	x
Argie	x	x

Look for Amy, then Daniel, then Yu Min, then Maria, and so on. As you find each one of them, mark next to their name. After you have gotten to the bottom of the list, go back to the top and start again. Keep searching for each child at a time, to make sure none get forgotten.