Field Trip Bingo!

Honestly, I do have a love-hate relationship with field trips. I LOVE for the kiddos to experience them but I do not like to plan them, collect the money or coordinate the lunches. Not to mention trying to track down the parent volunteer registration forms for the chaperones. It is just a lot of work. I grumble quietly to myself the whole time, but in the end it turns out to be one of the best days ever!  Just a few weeks ago, we went to a local dairy farm called Dakin Dairy. Now, my school has 9 (yes, nine) first grade classes. We can not all go to the farm on the same day. It might just scare the cows away! So, we have to go on two separate days. It is about a 45 minute drive on the school bus and once we arrive we are whisked off the bus and away we go! The guides let us plant beans, bottle feed baby cows, see a pig race, go on a hay ride, feed goats, see the cows being milked (3 times a day, 365 days a year…mercy!) play on the playground and have a picnic lunch. Super fun.  Super tiring.

The morning of the field trip, the kids come in the classroom super, super excited. I mean there is nothing like field trip excited. (Meanwhile, I am running around trying to take attendance, get lunch boxes in coolers, tag the kids, get the kids into the bathroom, all while looking out the window for the buses that should have arrived 10 minutes ago…LOL!) I try to channel this high voltage energy by asking the kiddos what they think they will see on the field trip and leave it pretty open ended. They are to create a farm bingo board by coming up with 9 different things (draw and label them) that they will see on the trip. The kiddos will put one in each box. The idea being, when they get back from the farm, they will mark off the things that they have seen and hopeful get farm bingo! (3 in a row earns farm bingo!) I love this because it gives them something to do before, during and after the field trip. (They do not take the board with them, it stays on their desk until we get back.) But I tell you, they are thinking about it the whole time. "Mrs. H…I just saw a tree, I had that on my bingo board!" "I saw a barn!" "I saw a swing set!" "I think I got 3 in a row!"
They love it! Here what a completed farm bingo board looks like:

Taking a trip to the farm soon? Interested in giving this a try?

Download your free copy here.

So, what do you do to occupy your kiddos before you go on a field trip?

 I would love to hear your ideas too!