Field Trips
Who says homeschooling has to happen at home? Most homeschoolers will tell you that they spend almost as much time out of the house as in it. Field trips are learning opportunties that offer fun ways to make every life experience a learning experience. You'll also find tips and strategies for planning, managing, and attending field trips with your homeschool support group.
Resources
Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird-watching, Shore Walking
With Jim Arnosky as your guide, an ordinary hike becomes an eye-opening experience. He'll help you spot a hawk soaring far overhead and note the details of a dragonfly up close. Study the black-and-white drawings -- based on his own field research -- and you'll discover if those tracks in the brush were made by a deer or a fox.
In his celebrated style, this author, artist, and naturalist enthusiastically shares a wealth of tips. Jim Arnosky wants you to enjoy watching wildlife. He carefully explains how field marks, shapes, and location give clues for identifying certain plants and animals wherever you are. He gives hints for sharpening observational skills. And he encourages you to draw and record birds, insects, shells, animal tracks, and other finds from a busy day's watch.
Appalachian National Scenic Trail
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a 2,180-mile footpath along the ridgecrests and across the major valleys of the Appalachian Mountains from Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in northern Georgia. It traverses the scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild, and culturally resonant lands of the Appalachian Mountains. Conceived in 1921, it was built by private citizens and completed in 1937. The trail traverses Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.
Community Field Trips in Tennessee
CiCi's Pizza Field Trips
CiCi's Pizza offers Lunch & Learn Field Trips for school groups. This is a hands-on workshop at CiCi's designed by teachers to help kids develop basic math skills. Students use pizza ingredients and other related items to solve problems, and in the process make and enjoy their very own pizza! They offer beginner, intermediate and advanced math level curricula.
Factory Tours in Tennessee
Coors Brewery Tours
Located in Golden, Colorado, and Memphis, Tennessee, Coors Brewery offers free tours of its facilities. Since 1873 the Coors brewery has thrived on a legacy of quality, innovation and customer service. The tour showcases the company’s history and passion for brewing.The brewery experience includes a 30-minute self-paced tour highlighting their malting, brewing and packaging processes. Cool off in the “fresh beer room," where visitors can sip a cold sample and rest on ice-cube benches in a refrigerated room. At the end of the tour, view old photos, neons, historical beer cans, bottles and memorabilia, and have the opportunity to sample our refreshing products. Be sure to shop in the Coors & Co. gift shop.
Zoos & Wildlife
Knoxville Zoological Gardens
The Knoxville Zoo offers animal exhibit areas, including the African Forest, Grasslands Africa, a Kid's Zoo, and more. The zoo is situated on 53 rolling acres on the east side of Knoxville and features more than 800 animals.
Memphis Zoo
The Memphis Zoo features animal exhibits, educational programs, and special exhibits. Highlights include Primate Canyon, Cat Country, the Northwest Passage, Once Upon a Farm, and a China exhibit.
Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park
Explore the animal world at the Chattanooga Zoo. Offers animal exhibits, educational programs, and special exhibits.
Tennessee Aquarium
Located in Chattanooga, the Tennessee Aquarium is the first and largest freshwater life center in the world. Journey through a spectacular 60-foot canyon and two living forests, where you will see over 9,000 animals that swim, fly and crawl in natural habitats. The Aquarium's exhibits guide visitors on a journey from the Tennessee River's source in the Appalachian high country, through its midstream, to the Mississippi Delta, and on to the great rivers of the world in Africa, South America and Asia. Visitors experience evocative living environments that recreate the habitats of the fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and insects that rely on rivers for their existence. Also features an IMAX theater.
Nashville Zoo
Nashville Zoo offers many animal species including cheetah, zebra, ostrich, gibbons, hyacinth macaw and more. In addition, the Zoo offers the Jungle Gym, the country's largest community-built playground, the Grassmere Historic Farm, the beautiful Unseen New World exhibit, exciting animal shows, educational programs and much more.
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
Occupying 115,000 square feet in the heart of downtown Gatlinburg, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies is a 1.4 million gallon aquarium with over 8,000 exotic sea creatures from all over the world featuring dozens of 10-foot sharks and the world’s longest underwater aquarium tunnel. Also features, two petting areas, hourly dive shows, hourly marine lectures, two great restaurants, and a gift shop.
Field Trip Tips & Guidelines
Field Trips in a Large Family
There are lots of things to love about a large family, but being agile and moving about quickly isn’t really one of them. Learning in action and experiencing something first hand is one of the best things about homeschooling. It’s often what really sets apart our education from that of a traditional brick and mortar school. It is worth it to make the effort for field trips, though it doesn’t necessarily make them any easier!
Field Trip Planning Form
Helpful form for getting organized when planning field trips. Free and printable.
Field Trip Report Form
This handy printable form lets your child record a written record of your field trip visit.
Organizing Homeschool Field Trips for Groups
Organizing group field trips is becoming a highly desired activity in homeschool support groups and co-ops. Not only do they offer social interaction but learning experiences as well. But without good planning, a field trip can end up being just a glorified play date. Home education time is limited, especially with the increasing number of extra curricular options for homeschoolers. Parents are becoming more selective of outside activities and attendance on group trips will fall off if participants aren’t seeing an educational benefit in addition to social time. This e-book will describe how to plan and host a great group field trip that will leave
the participants anxious for more and perhaps even take a turn at planning themselves.
A Field Trip Should Not Be a Free-For-All
A reminder of the importance of teaching children respect and proper behavior when out enjoying field trips.
10 Tips for Finding and Planning Homeschool Field Trips
While it may be easy to understand the value in visiting the aquarium, history museums and other great field trips, a good field trip can provide much more than interesting facts and new discoveries. Field trips don’t have to be complicated or expensive in order to be effective. These ten tips will help make your planning go smoothly.
10 Rules for Taking Field Trips
At the beginning of each school year, it would be a good time to have a field trip manners lesson with your support group. Parents and children alike sometimes need to think about what it’s like to be a docent or tour leader. Perhaps your group would even like to consider creating some field trip rules. The rules in this article are ten examples.
The Ultimate Guide to Field Trips for Homeschoolers
Field trips don’t have to be elaborate or cost of ton of money to be both fun and educational. Some of the best “field trips” are a nature walk and park lunch with friends. Especially when your children are young, keep them simple. Nature walks, zoos, and local places like the bakery, pizzeria, greenhouse, post office, police station, fire station, coffee shop, you name it you can tour it!
5 Steps to a Successful Field Trip
Summer is a great time for field trips. Your schedule may be a bit more flexible, making it the perfect time to head out and explore! Field trips are an excellent way to enhance the learning done during the previous school year and inspire future learning. Planning and enjoying a field trip for a group or for your own family is easy. Here is a list of ideas to make the most of every experience.
Field Trip Guidelines for Homeschool Groups
This letter can be used to establish an understanding about homeschool groups when you organize a field trip.
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Featured Resources
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Discover Your Children's Gifts
This comprehensive work on children's learning styles and creativity expression is a tremendous help to parents as they begin homeschooling. The authors discuss how God gifts children in different ways with different ways of learning and expression. This guide will help you identify your child's personality gifts and help them reach their full potential.
Climb Inside a Poem for Children Big Book of Poems
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National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, Fourth Edition
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If you're ready to begin homeschooling, then the experiences of others can offer valuable help and encouragement as you jump into this new adventure. This practical guide answers common questions, helps you navigate the legalities of homeschooling, talks about the practical side of homeschooling and different methods, offers resources and gives advice about high school.