We all know that young children learn best by physically interacting with materials in their environment – ACTIVE, REAL EXPERIENCES – and one of the very best active, real experiences is the field trip.

A well-planned, age-appropriate field trip introduces new concepts and skills through all the methods children use for learning – Movement, Manipulation, Sensory Operations including Deduction, Construction, Role Play, and Expression.

A field trip must be planned with the elements of SAFETY FIRST, and because we believe so completely in DAP, field trips must be planned with the developmental level and nature of the children foremost in mind. Field trips can be as simple as a stroller walk around the campus for babies; a walk through each of your program’s classrooms with toddlers; a walk to a safe spot on the grounds to watch the traffic with twos; a walk around the neighborhood to see construction sites, offices, stores, and neighbors with threes; or visiting a farm, tourist attraction, library, fire station, or factory with four and fives.

Formal field trip planning MUST include considerations of SAFETY (adult-child ratio, vehicle and driver condition, and destination safety) and PURPOSE (reason for this destination being chosen). Purposes may be the provision of NEW experiences for children – city kids going to the farm or country kids going to a factory or office; reinforcement of concepts/skills of a unit of learning; or just for fun.

To make a field trip a valuable learning experience do this:

Before:           Plan with your learners, asking questions about what they might see, hear, or experience. Even babies should be ‘prepped’ for a trip. If developmentally appropriate, record the children’s input as you plan. One class of fours took Bingo/Lotto cards with them to a local farm and crossed off the pictures as they matched them with what they saw. (COW, Mrs. B! COW!) Talk about field trip behavior expectations and be firm about safety rules.

On the Way:  Remember that the journey to (and from) the destination is a great opportunity for learning – talking about what they might see and what they are seeing as they walk or ride, stopping as they walk to look at objects, signs, plants, animals, counting cars, carrying on personal conversations, singing, etc.

During:         Use the field trip just as you use a classroom experience. Help the children listen if destination representatives are speaking or demonstrating. Call attention to objects or items they may not notice. Encourage them to safely explore. Offer language and ask open-ended questions just as you should at “Center Time”. Take pictures to use for recall and reflection.

After:              Try to save time after a field trip to developmentally reflect on and reinforce the learning from the experience. Tell the babies what they saw; ask the toddlers and twos both specific and open-ended questions (What did you see at the fire station? Did you hear a loud noise? Did you like going there?); ask threes to recall and retell what they saw (What did you like best at the farm?); ask fours and fives to draw or write about the experience. Record and post both verbal and artistic reflections so the learning can be remembered and reinforced.

Some of the best field trips DO NOT involve leaving the campus or even the classroom. Toddlers and twos love putting their chairs in a circle, putting on their finest hats, and taking a ‘bus ride’ without leaving the room. Threes will follow you anywhere if you sing, so sing your way around the block. Fours and fives feel like big shots if they create a group masterpiece or put on their community helper garb to show their learning to the younger children or the preschool office administrators.

 

I’ve written about this before, but here are some more ways to use the routine element of making transitions that call for moving a group of children to another location into learning experiences.

Developmentally speaking, Infants and Babies do not line up, but are transported in strollers. Toddlers can travel for short distances in a “cat-herding” group with adults in front and behind and can go for longer walks with EXTREME supervision or the use of a ribbon, scarf, or knotted rope line moving only as fast as the slowest walker. Twos can move in a line, but must be allowed to pause when distracted (great learning moments). Threes will follow you anywhere if you sing, march, or walk like animals. Fours and Fives need to practice walking in a line for “Big School”.

Before lining up to travel, children need to be told where and why they are going to a different location and what the teacher expects behaviorally on the way. If you use a Line Learning technique, keep it developmentally appropriate in skill and time. Lining up can be one of the most valuable teaching tools of your day. Personalize these:

“Please line up if/when you:”

Body:  Gross Motor & Health – skip, tiptoe, gallop, slide, walk backward; catch the beanbag and toss it back to a friend; tell me what you ate for breakfast that was healthy; show me how you brushed your teeth; have washed your hands.

Fine Motor – show me how you can stack 3/5/10 blocks on the table; pick up 3 cotton balls with your hand/pincers/tweezers

Mind:   Intelligence – point to/tell me where you worked this morning; recognize this picture; go to the Nature Table and bring back a pine cone; are wearing (color, pattern, article of clothing).

Language-Literacy – hear me whisper/say out loud/say the first letter/make the sound of the first letter/spell your name; say your name/say the first letter/spell your own name; hear me say a word that rhymes with your name; recognize the first letter/full name in print; tell me the name of your favorite book or character; read this sight word.

Math – can make a line by tallest to shortest; can tell me how many people are in the line when you are added; can count to 5/10/20, etc.; can tell me which of these animals is bigger/smaller; can put your hands up/down/on tummy, etc.; can make a pattern in the line by color or clothes; can show us a shape.

Science – can show us a leaf (animal, bird, etc.,); name an animal or plant you saw on the way to school today; tell us what the weather is like today; can line up like animal; can show us something soft/hard.

Social Studies – can tell us the names of your family/friends; tell the work your mom or dad do; recognize this community helper; tell the name of this famous person; tell us who you played with today; tell us what you did to make our classroom better today.

Spirit: can tell us your name; tell us your teacher’s name; tell us a friend’s name; tell us what you like about school today; tell us a good thing about the friend next to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we are being true to the philosophy & tenets of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), there is no reason for early childhood educators to use a formal standardized test to determine individual progress toward stated goals.

Assessment can be done during the daily experiences of the day – both routine (arrival, separation from parent, meals, transitions, hygiene) and curricular (circle time, center time, teacher-led small or whole group activities, and enrichment classes).

Use a system (I call it OCDRP) that includes Observation, Collaboration, Documentation, Referral, & Planning. Let’s just deal with Observation. It means careful looking and listening while the children engage in purposeful play. Add to that, your personal, full-on attention and encouragement and knowledge of child development and assessment becomes a natural part of the day.

If a teacher is fully engaged with her children during all aspects of the day – watching, listening, carrying on personal conversations, and asking questions that spark interest and scaffold learning – almost every item on a program’s list of goals can be assessed without a sit-down-formal-paper & pencil-standardized test. This is not always easy, but MUST be done as often as possible – especially during those times when the children are specifically engaged in child-chosen purposeful play. (No paperwork, errand-running, diapering (if possible) or potty breaks during Center Time – it is the meat in the sandwich of the day!!!)

The best assessments are made by observing and listening to the children as they play and engaging them in conversation by asking open-ended questions.  These assessment moments must be recognized as learning by knowing your program’s stated developmental expectations and matching them to your observations. Ex: I had a conversation with a three-year-old while comparing ‘owies’ on our arms. I said, “My owie happened a time ago” and the child replied, “Oh, it is healing now.” This tells me that this child had a sense of past, present, and future; an idea of the scientific/health concept of injury and healing; a vocabulary that was above average; and the ability to express his learning. No sit-down testing needed.

Last week a two-year-old handed me a book to read to him. I read it twice and then asked him to read it to me. He turned the pages beautifully, pointed to the pictures and repeated the story to me (in two-ese) four times. Fine motor, page-turning, picture recognition, retelling, and attention span assessed – BOOM!

Document these moments by taking mental or physical notes and transcribing them to the child’s portfolio or video assessment system. Take and post dictation & quotes on the walls of your classroom and share them with both children and parents. Use your program’s standardized checklist or formal assessment forms to document, but not to conduct a formal one-on-one testing situation for children under the age of five.