Does your school offer fieldtrip?

[Anonymous]

What grade, and where do they go?

[Anonymous]

1st - imagination stage (in Bethesda). We didn't have any last year but that could be because of Covid. A friend's DC went to the zoo last year in K.

[Anonymous]

I only had one in MCPS for ES. They went to the Zoo each year, St. Mary’s City in 4th grade, and Philadelphia in 5th. There were also lots of field trips to places in the community like Sligo Creek.

In Middle School, they went to the Frederick Douglass House, Harper’s Ferry, the Smithsonians, the Science Center in Baltimore, and AFI.

The HS field trips have been to the Anacostia River, Smithsonians, AFI, and the Holocaust Museum.

[Anonymous]

8th graders going to the zoo, and later the mall in dc. 7th graders will be going to Medieval Times.

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten, the zoo and then Butler's Orchard to pick strawberries, both last year. This year's kindergartners went to the Butler's Orchard Fall Festival already, as well.

[Anonymous]

Butlers orchard, zoo, museum of natural history, kid museum, imagination stage, strathmore. These were all K through the beginning of 3rd. Covid started end of 3rd. Kid now in 6th. There haven’t been any non-virtual field trips since the Before Times.

[Anonymous]

No, thank goodness.

May I ask a genuine question, OP? Do you want your child to go on field trips at school? If so, do you mind saying why?

[Anonymous]

My 5th graders are going to Strathmore next week and I think there will be another in the Spring.

I am pro- field trips as they give the kids more experiences that they would not otherwise have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 5th graders are going to Strathmore next week and I think there will be another in the Spring.

I am pro- field trips as they give the kids more experiences that they would not otherwise have.

I realize that’s the idea, but at DD’s Title I school, every child has been to the locations we went to for field trips pre-covid. Every child. We weren’t giving them any new experiences.

[Anonymous]

I meant “had been”

[Anonymous]

Mount Vernon 5th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5th graders are going to Strathmore next week and I think there will be another in the Spring.

I am pro- field trips as they give the kids more experiences that they would not otherwise have.

I realize that’s the idea, but at DD’s Title I school, every child has been to the locations we went to for field trips pre-covid. Every child. We weren’t giving them any new experiences.

Is there a St. Mary’s trip? That one was new to my kid. Nothing else was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5th graders are going to Strathmore next week and I think there will be another in the Spring.

I am pro- field trips as they give the kids more experiences that they would not otherwise have.

I realize that’s the idea, but at DD’s Title I school, every child has been to the locations we went to for field trips pre-covid. Every child. We weren’t giving them any new experiences.

As someone who has planned many field trips in MCPS, I know that some schools do a better job than others in getting to know the students and then planning meaningful experiences. For example, I used to teach at a high income middle school with many students who used to live in Europe or were from families that frequently there. They had zero interest in the 7th grade field trip to Medieval Times at a mall in Anne Arundel Co. The fewer students wanted to go, the more expensive the trip became because we still had to pay for buses and subs. This made it harder for lower income students who were interested to afford the experience. And parents are less likely to donate toward a field trip if their own kids won’t go. After four years of a struggle to make it a seventh grade milestone, we dropped it. I sent out a survey about student interests and the results got us off the beaten path for the next three years.

At my current school, kids are so sick of the Zoo that we no longer go there. Same with Air and Space. The pandemic gave us a chance to rethink where student interests and curriculum intersect, but now it’s very hard to get subs.

[Anonymous]

My kid’s 1st grade class went to Sharps Farm this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5th graders are going to Strathmore next week and I think there will be another in the Spring.

I am pro- field trips as they give the kids more experiences that they would not otherwise have.

I realize that’s the idea, but at DD’s Title I school, every child has been to the locations we went to for field trips pre-covid. Every child. We weren’t giving them any new experiences.

Every child has been everywhere? Wow that's quite a definitive statement.