Winter Fieldtrip Ideas for Elementary Classroom Students

Winter is the time of year when weather forces teachers and students to spend more time indoors. That means winter fieldtrips are better planned around indoor learning experiences. Although there are some outdoor recreational activities that would appeal to students, keeping students safe and warm takes priority. That being said, winter fieldtrips are ones that usually include visiting places of community service, theaters, indoor museums, places of business, or animal care facilities. Here are several winter fieldtrip ideas for elementary classroom students.

Community Service Winter Fieldtrip Ideas: Places of community service are typical fieldtrip excursions for elementary students. They include places such as the post office, fire department, police station, public library, public utilities, convalescent home, and hospital. Building a unit of study around a fieldtrip to one or several of these public service centers is a great way to incorporate real-life experience into what might otherwise be less-interesting classroom deskwork.

Indoor Museum Winter Fieldtrip Ideas: The list of possible museums that students might visit includes many choices. For example, students might take a winter fieldtrip to a flight museum, a science museum, a history museum, a children's museum, an art museum, a train museum, an old car museum, or a planetarium. There is usually at least one type of museum within driving distance of school.

Business or Fabrication Winter Fieldtrip Ideas: This is where a teacher can get creative and where some of the most memorable fieldtrip experiences are had. Businesses, such as banks, are fairly commonplace, and students have been there, done that before, with a parent. But students probably haven't been inside a bank vault or seen how counterfeit bills are detected.

Fieldtrips to places of business might inspire students to go into that particular vocation. Examples of businesses that would make an interesting fieldtrip include business that do: welding fabrication, clothing fabrication, weaving or textile fabrication, automotive repair, television or radio broadcasting, sculpting, glass-blowing, bread-making, pizza making, beverage bottling, or other food service production.

Animal Care Winter Fieldtrip Ideas: During the cold-weather months, many animals need special care, such as grazing herds that feed at a winter feeding station. Also, fish hatcheries and humane shelters offer lots of high-interest fieldtrip experiences. Both are usually found within driving distance of most schools and make an excellent half-day fieldtrip.

Teachers needn't let cold winter days keep students in the classroom. Winter is a great time for a classroom fieldtrip. With the right permissions in place, proper planning, transportation arrangements, and administrative support, a winter fieldtrip can recharge a school year and motivate students and their teacher to learn new things.