Best Virtual Field Trips for Your Elementary Classroom

Once upon a time, field trips meant loading up the bus and heading to a museum or park for the day. But with today's technology, "field trips" have taken on a whole new dimension! Virtual field trips offer an opportunity for teachers to bring unique experiences to their students from the comfort of their own classroom. 

Listed below are some of the best virtual field trips on the web that offer plenty of choices and directly align with multiple science or social studies standards.

If you are looking for a way to get your students responding to what they  experienced, grab this FREEBIE set of digital response templates. Read about them here.

Teachers can choose from 3 different responses that will fit any field trip chosen! These responses offer maximum versatility to reach every learner in your classroom. 

SCIENCE

Access Mars

The ultimate field trip- another planet! This engaging website allows students to explore the Red Planet as well as the rover, Curiosity.

Detroit Public TV Digital Adventures:

Great Lakes Now - Virtual Field Trips

360 Experiences Winged Creatures 

Grab a lesson plan and link (provided on the website) and take your students to various areas along the Great Lakes.

International Wolf Center

Whether you're seeking red or grey wolves, this website has you covered! The IWC offers a variety of distance learning opportunities as well as free or paid encounters. Click on the "programs" tab to see all of your options.

Lights Over Lapland

Click in and choose your frosty adventure! Stunning photos and beautifully edited videos give students a virtual experience from Sweden.

National Zoo Live Web Cams

Download the provided bingo cards and click through to some fun! 5 different webcams and 4 different bingo cards offer plenty of virtual fun for you and your students.

Nickelodeon - Slime in Space

This YouTube link will lead you and your students through slime experiments in space, vocabulary enrichment, as well as some Q & A.

San Diego Zoo Live Webcams

Choose your animal and click in to watch them live in their exhibit!

Son Doog Cave

Enjoy this amazing land structure in Vietam and enjoy the 360 degree view as well as the accompanying audio.

Stellarium Web

An interactive website that gives stydents options for exploring the night sky.

SOCIAL STUDIES

American Battlefield Trust 

Click and select a battlefield! These virtual tours of Civil War and American Revolution battlefields bring your students to historic spots and give them a 360 degree view.

Colonial Williamsburg Webcams

Explore eight different webcams and see what's happening at places like Market House or Raleigh Tavern.

Ellis Island

Walk the hallways that millions of immigrants moved through as they made their way to a new life in America. View the refurbished Great Hall as well as areas frozen in time such as the Hospital Wing and Staff Quarters. The 360 degree views, navigation map, and comment side bars will give your students a modern-day lens to a historic place in American history.

History View - American Revolution

Click in and watch reinactors demonstrate what happened at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Commentary and visuals help students get a comprehensive understanding of "The Shot Heard Around the World". See everything History View offers here --> HistoryView.org

Museum of the American Revolutionary War (Distance Learning Link)

Along with an impressive virtual tour, the AmRev Museum also offers paid, live experiences for classrooms. 

National Constitution Center - Virtual Tour Exhibits

Choose from four different exhibits that offer 360 degree viewing, audio commentary, and zoom options.

National Constitution Center - Interactive Constitution

A brilliant website that gives students an opportunity to explore the process of drafting the Constitution as well as a closer look at the Civil War Amendments and the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

Monticello

See Thomas Jefferson's estate in all it's glory. Monticello teamed up with Google to bring users a truly museum-like experience. Use the map or tale of contents to explore every inch of the home and grounds (incuding the Hemmings Cabin).

Mount Vernon

Tour the estate of our first president, George Washington! The clickable links lead students to 360 degree views, short texts about specific artifacts, stories, and videos.

National WW2 Museum (K-12 Distance Learning Link)

Offering a range of experiences, the National WW2 Museum is sure to have something that will fit your needs and budget. Video archives, webinars, and virtual and electronic field trip experiences are just a sampling of what they offer. Teachers can even explore their own professional development!

US Census Bureau - Home and Distance Learning Activities

A plethora of activities designed around the Census and statistics. This website offers educators lesson plans written in a classic format that includes grade level, time needed, and the location on Bloom's Taxonomy!

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

A virtual version of every exhibit. Bookmark and come back for more and more!

The Statue of Liberty

See Lady Liberty in all her glory. Multiple links will bring you to every inch of her magnificence; including some spots not included in the ticketed tour!

The Vatican Museum

Breathtaking 360 degree exhibits; includes the Sistine Chapel

Google Field Trips

The Great Barrier Reef 

Harriet Tubman

Ford's Theater

Google Voyager

Google has an amazing "grid". So, it's no surprise they have some amazing tools that offer your students up close and personal experiences around the globe. I have done a handful of the experiences in Google Voyager and the students absolutely love them. The interactive component of moving around the globe blended with factoids, informational text, short videos, and artifacts give the students a truly museum-like experience.

No matter what your budget or subject area might be, there is something out there for you and your students. Keep using key terms to search for the latest and greatest offerings. And, if you come across some really spectactular finds, let me know. I'll gladly add them to this list!

Packing Your Room for The Year

Have you been in quarantine? Are you starting to wind down the days of distance learning? If so, it’s most likely that you will be limited in time and days that you can go back into your classroom and pack it up in preparation for summer. I have packed up my room for the summer (and in preparation for moving buildings!) and wanted to share some quick tips for making your end of the year closing a bit smoother.

PREP FOR A LONG HAUL

Make sure to bring snacks and water to keep you going all day. It is always an energy drain when you have to stop to go get lunch. Cheese and fresh fruit are great pick-me-ups when energy levels start to droop. Keep moving and focused on your lists. The quicker you get this job done the better you will feel. If you focus better with music playing in the background - play it! If your phone will be a distraction, put it on mute or put it away altogether and control the impulse to check it every few minutes.

CLOSE YOUR DOOR

You have limited time. Stay focused. If you’re a person that coworkers love to visit and spend time with, a closed door will send a message to not enter. Post a sign if you need to. If you’re one to wander and chat, a closed door will remind you to stay put and work on the task at hand. Either way, a closed door will keep you focused and help you stay within the CDC guidelines for best practices during this time.

MAKE A LIST OF WHAT NEEDS TO COME HOME

Which materials, files, books, etc... will you need during the summer break? If you have specific curriculum you want to work on, put it on your list. Pack it up in a “to go home” box before you start working on the rest of the room. Doing this list first helps alleviate the possibility you might pack it away and need to unpack to get it later on.

WALL PREPARATION

Clear off all your walls after getting your “to go home” box packed. Normally, I would do this during the early part of June and then slowly start to put items away throughout the next couple of weeks. But in this situation, it seemed smart to start with cleared walls. I took down the QR code hunts and bulletin board displays and filed them away for another time. All the rules and schedules came down. Having the walls cleared off helped me get over the “hump” of getting started.

PURGE THAT STUFF

If you’re anything like me, you have a copy paper box of worksheets that are sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Get rid of them. Seriously… why do we keep that box of worksheets? All it does is take up space. Recycle it.

Do you have broken items (pencil boxes, play toys, rulers, organizers) that get tossed about because you have never taken that final step of throwing them away? Do it now.

Purging items will be cathartic. Really scrutinize if it’s worth your time to pack up and label certain things that in the back of your mind you know will just sit next year collecting more dust.

STUDENT MATERIALS

Every school will create their own plan for getting student materials back to the students. Think about what the expectations will be for returning your students’ items to them. You may need to bring bags or boxes with you for this task.

Based on how my team operates, our students have very few personal items. As I was cleaning up the room I would place items in the students’ mailboxes. Toward the end of my time I placed all student items in a gallon-sized freezer bag and wrote each child’s name on the outside using a permanent marker. Bags were placed alphabetically into 2 copy paper boxes and will be distributed back to the students at a later date.

MENTALLY MAP OUT YOUR PLAN

Figure out where you are going to start. I tend to choose areas that will make me feel accomplished so I stay motivated. If you want to get a feeling of accomplishment immediately, you may want to start with cabinets or shelves that are already semi-organized and easy to pack.

Maybe you want to start at one end or corner of your room and work your way around. You will be able to see the progress you're making across your classroom. Working from one end to the other is a great way to create a designated area for packed items.

Stacking From the Corner

LABEL EVERYTHING

Make a pile of labels for yourself before you go into school. We make them digitally and print a few hundred to label boxes and furniture. The most helpful tip I have always used is to keep a notebook or spreadsheet of your boxes! As you label the boxes and furniture it goes into the spreadsheet. This way you know what you have packed and a brief summary of what is in that box. This is helpful if boxes get misplaced or you need to find something quick. In the fall, when I put my room back together and unpack everything, I cross off each box as it’s unpacked. The spreadsheet system works well and I highly recommend it!

EMOTIONALLY PREPARE YOURSELF

I will give you fair warning to prepare yourself for some unexpected emotions. Yours may come from a different spot in your classroom, but for me it was my whiteboard. I wasn’t prepared for the feelings I had when I looked at it. It was surreal; like an unopened gift that could never be opened. That whiteboard represented all the moments that have been stolen from us during this quarantine.

It was the first thing I noticed when I initially walked into my classroom. And I stood there frozen in time - much like the board. It had the information written on it from when I walked out on March 13 in preparation for a new week that would never begin: the day of the week, the letter day, the date, our count to 180 days. I stared at it for a while, felt uncomfortable, and then turned my attention elsewhere. I decided to face the emotions contained within the whiteboard later on. I waited until the last minute to erase that board - a final gesture that acquiesced the fate of this school year.

I then took a look around the room. Walls were bare. Boxes were packed. Everything was neatly stacked and labeled. As I made my exit from the room I made sure to anchor a different feeling. I reminded myself that the next time I will see these boxes and decorate walls it will be with the promise that a new school year brings. All the excitement and newness; meeting new students and families, delivering instruction that excites and enriches, the promise of doing it a little better than last year. So with that final look I harnessed those promises, discarded the sadness, and closed the door. 

End of the Year Behavior Management

When it comes to classroom management, routine consistency is the key. Seasoned teachers know that when time is invested early on in classroom routines, the success will carry through the rest of the year. But by the time May comes along the necessity turns to novelty. Even though the normal schedules get interrupted by assessments and play days - the students still crave structure. Here are a few ways to make school fun while still keeping them under control!

Voice Levels Board

This simple hand-made poster can be made on poster board or on a Google slide. It creates a visual for the students to self monitor their noise in a fun way. Every student wants to keep working with a buddy as long as they use a “Spy” voice. As the year goes on their classroom talking voices increase. This poster is a great way to keep them thinking about their inside voice!

WOW Board

Another simple hand-made poster that I laminate for longevity: I create a grid with letter/number coordinates. Throughout the day, I put their initials on the squares (in dry erase marker) to reward them for good behavior and academic excellence. At the end of the day, I randomly pick 2-4 squares and they receive a candy pick. The students love to get as many squares with their names on them as they can.

Compliment Stars

Hallway behavior is another thing that goes down the drain as summer approaches! I award stars to the students that receive compliments from other teachers/staff members or even other students for their hallway behavior. I put the stars on the board when we receive them. Once we receive 10 stars they get a class reward. I usually choose things that don’t cost me too much time or money. Their favorite is having lunch bunch in the classroom. Another variation of this is earning fuzzies in a jar. The more they earn the bigger the prize!

Class Dojo

Class Dojo is an app that you can download for free. When you upload your student names into the app, each student receives a monster avatar. The teacher can assign points to different behaviors or actions. There is an option on the app that allows for it to randomly choose a student. If that student is following the classroom expectation, they earn the point. If not, the teacher randomly picks another student. Each Friday, I give each student the points that they earned in real paper Dojo cash. I have also created a paper menu that has rewards that the students can purchase when they earn their dojo points and dollars.

I love using Class Dojo! You can read about my experience with this app here:

How to Create the Best Home/School Connection with Just One App!

You can find materials to support a Dojo classroom here:

Fourth and Fritcher 3-in-1 Mega Pack Bundle

Reminder Anchor Chart

Sometimes you need to have a chit-chat with your class. In the past I have gone over the rules in-depth and created an anchor chart to help them remember the expectations.

You can read about this process here:

Refocusing For the Rest of the Year

Reminder Anchor Chart

Every teacher as time goes on creates a “tool box” of management techniques that work for them. But having a May/June arsenal is a must for surviving the last 2 months of every school year! Good luck - the end is very near!!!

End of the Year Tasks in an Elementary Classroom

It’s that time of year to start thinking about what worked this year and what we can do to improve next year. I’ve had a lot of “end of year” school years. Throughout that time, I’ve learned a few tricks to help make the start of next year a little bit smoother.

1. Copies for the Fall

I start going through all the activities and original copies that I used for the year. Then I make a list of all things that I want to use again. This list works as a rough draft for plans but also a check off list for my printing assignments. Our district uses digital printing so I can upload the PDFs for the copies I want printed. I know I will add and supplement with new activities, but I like to send all of my copies for September and October before the school year ends. I set the copies due date for the first week of June so I can check it off my list and store it for the summer. It will be one less thing I need to do as I prep my room for the new students coming in!

2. Packing

Each year we have to take everything off our walls and pack up as much as we can so they can move out all of our furniture to wax our floors. This year we have to move our classroom to another building so we have to do “real” packing. But I use the same process either way!

As a team we make a label sheet on standard copy paper that has my name, room number, and a place for a box number. We send this to printing and request about 100 copies for each of us. Each teacher has a designated paper color for his/her sign. It’s a quick way to differentiate which box belongs to which teacher. With a complete move (including the furniture), everything gets a label sheet and number: chairs, tables, bookcases...everything.

As I start packing, I tape the label sheet on the box and number it. I also create a spreadsheet that will tell me which box has which items inside. When I unpack later, the spreadsheet will help me know which boxes contain what. I use the spreadsheet to determine which boxes to unpack and where. I also use the chart to organize the order I unpack boxes. For instance, I’ll put all construction paper-containing boxes near the cupboard where I will store construction paper. I might just move them there during the initial sorting phase and empty them out at a later time. As I empty boxes, I check them off my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet also helps me realize if a box or group of boxes doesn’t make it to its new destination.

Label Your Boxes: Name, School, Room #, and Box Number

3. Bulletin Boards

Most years we can keep our bulletin boards up as long as we cover them. We hope that the summer staff doesn’t get anything wet and most times we are good. But if you have to take them down each year here is a quick idea to keep all of your bulletin board materials together.

I usually spent a lot of time layering and mix and matching different borders. To save time later on, I keep the materials together to replicate it for the next year. I dismantle a bulletin board one at a time. I take all the staples out so they are ready to go in the fall. I roll up the borders in a rosette shape. As soon as all of that bulletin board stuff is rolled up, I use a large binder clip to hold it all together. Then, I also label which bulletin board it belongs to. This way in the fall you just have to put up new paper and your borders are matched and measured for easy assembly.

In the past we have used plastic dollar store table cloths or fabric for the backing of the bulletin board. But some years the district has given us issues over them being a fire hazard. So I found a better solution! I found rolls of white wrapping paper at the dollar store. This works great and matches any color combination that you use to decorate.

4. Planning Spreadsheet

My fourth grade team has created a google sheet to lay out our content literacy and standards plan of attack. This is powerful when you see what articles and books you are using for each lesson. It demonstrates where you have gaps and where you need to incorporate different lessons for different standards. This also leads my team to the discussion about spiraling curriculum. We want the students to work towards deeper learning over mastery. The more exposures and applications students have to standards and skills, the deeper the learning will be. It is even more powerful when we are hitting those areas in Social Studies and Science!

The NYS standards (NYS Next Generation Standards) have been revised to combine the old literature and informational standards. So, instead of keeping track of 2 sets of reading standards, it has been condensed into one!

These are some simple things that will help you think about how you will wrap up your school year while still preparing for the start of the next. As we get more experienced as teachers, we learn a few tricks that make us say, “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

Refocusing Your Students for the Rest of the Year

There are certain times of the year when students need to be reminded of the rules in a more structured, formal capacity. Traditionally, those times are most prevalent right around Thanksgiving and again in the spring. Although, the spring reminder moves around depending on when Easter, the spring break, and State testing occur (and if there is a full moon)!

I use a blend of Whole Brain Teaching, Class Dojo, and a hodge-podge of tricks and tips I've acquired during my time in the trenches. There are quite a few classroom management systems in place. The students hear the rules and/or experience reinforcement of them in small degrees throughout the year. But, springtime offers an opportunity to help the students refresh their understanding of the rules so that the year can finish off as smoothly and painlessly as possible!

I saw an idea from 2nd Grade Sassy Pants and decided to give it a shot. I made a few adjustments to meet the needs of my classroom. 

Finished Anchor Chart

This easy anchor chart can be made by using the following steps...

You Will Need:

• chart paper
• colored markers
• sticky notes
• pencils

Time Frame:

• < 30 minutes

Procedure:

• Prep the chart paper with whichever heading works for your students.
• Write out a few sticky notes that have "acceptable" and "unacceptable" behaviors on them. For this chart I color-coded the stickies (green and red) and keep them out of sight until we discussed them as a whole group.
• Ask students to give a thumbs ups or a thumbs down to indicate which section of the chart the sticky belongs on.
• In pairs (or triads) have students write down an additional behavior to be added to the chart.
• Add the red "no" slash or the green star as you and your students discuss their sticky notes.
• Add the student suggestions to the correct side.
• Display the anchor chart to remind students of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.

Overall, this was a success! Behaviors were immediately adjusted for the better. And, I now have an additional resource in the classroom for students to refer to when the need arises. The interactive piece was a hit in my room. The students loved sharing their ideas and they added a few things that I wouldn't have thought to include. 

Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you!