Fun Field Trip

Field trips have gotten really expensive in my district.  Not only do we have to charge the students whatever the fees are for the location, we have to pay gas charges per mile - yes, I said per mile.

I teach in the southern suburbs of Chicago.  Chicago has some of the best museums in the country (at least in my opinion).  We used to go to the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry.  Not anymore.  The gas charges can turn a normal field trip of $5-8 per child to $15-25 per child.  We just can't have our students pay that anymore, and a lot of them can't afford it even.

We used to go on two field trips a year and then the bowling trip for a total of 3 trips.  Now we just do this one - Each year our PE teacher teaches our entire school a unit on bowling.  She teaches our third graders how to keep score as well as other activities. 

Since she shows our students how to keep score, she plans a field trip that takes third graders to a bowling alley to show off their skills.  Oh...my...goodness....do these students love this field trip (and wow do us third grade teachers love not having to plan it!).

Here are some pictures I took of my kiddos at the bowling alley.

 

Gotta love bumpers!

 

A student in action.



 

One of the piles of shoes!

 

 

Keeping score (yes, she has them keep score manually and not just use the

scoreboard...what a great way to incorporate math skills!)

 

Pretending to sleep on the bus (especially since the

bowling alley was only 15 minutes away!)

 

The trip is only a half a day, but the kids LOVE it.  It only costs $7 per child.  And it is so nice to be contained in one area so I can watch my entire class at one time!  What kinds of field trip do you take with your students??  Do you have to pay a gas charge too???