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.