Field trips costs
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Anonymous
Do you have more info about the GRECO Day? I searched it and didn't come up with anything. I teach for FCPS and we have discussed "new" field trip ideas. Our field trips seem to change from year to year outside of the NSO (4th grade) and Pamplin (6th grade). I'm not sure where k-2 or 5th go. 2nd grade used to go to the zoo. Some other examples: 3rd Greenspring Gardens, or Natural History Museum, or Colvin Run Mill 4th Mount Vernon and Decatur House. Sully Plantation and Gunston Hall have also been options. I've never known any grades to go on trips to to places such Jamestown, Williamsburg, or Philadelphia, at least not in the past 20 years. |
Anonymous
| I've only paid $15 once. Usually I just have to sign a permission slip and signify whether or not he'll be bringing his lunch or will want to take the bagged lunch from the school. This is the first year I've paid, and the first year since my husband stopped writing their grants. |
Anonymous
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We’re at a Title 1 school. Our PTO gives the school enough money to cover $12.50 of field trip costs for every child. Once the $12.50 is used up, the parents are asked to pay. Since kindergarten goes on some more trips to Shlagel Farms, more money per kid is allotted.
Fourth grade just went to Jamestown. Kids ended up paying about $20 each. Again PTO made a one-time grant to offset costs, and the teachers applied for a grant (from Target, maybe?) to bring down the per student cost. The sixth graders go to Hemlock and get a grant from Hemlock to offset the costs. |
Anonymous
The interesting part of one of my last FT as chaperone was to see that neither the teacher and the mother of the loudest kid were bothering to control him. |
Anonymous
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I can understand Jamestown as a field trip -- it WAS really good.
But, Medieval Times???? that's just plain old L.A.Z.Y! And what's worse, is that it is a non-interactive experience for the kids.... they passively sit and watch. I call it LAZY b/c it takes a bit of effort to put on a Medieval Day at your school, but it is sooooooo much better! It is bound to be INTERACTIVE rather than passive. Our former elem. school would hire a Queen Elizabeth actor and she was fabulous! All the kids loved her show and she involved the kids in a way that taught them about living standards and the royalty and such. The kids would all come to school dressed up. They would spend the day doing various activities including a group dance, games, and the maypole thing, and they'd have a special luncheon. The kids would make the hallways look like the bricks of a castle (art class) and the parents would decorate the cafeteria. I think the kids also had to prepare a "job" that they did and the younger kids would come by and see it. So, one person might be a leather worker -- and would pretend to make leather goods. One person might be a court jester and would do dancing and joke telling (and dress like a clown). Another person would be a baker and would show their time-period-baked goods, another kid would be a musician and actually play the violin or flute in some kind of Medieval like music. This would all be displayed in the cafeteria in the morning and the younger kids and parents would file through. THAT's what public school kids should be doing -- and it's actually a good way to use the first week or two of June to do FUN activities (preparing for the Medieval Day) rather than being L.A.Z.Y. charging parents $75 for kids to go to Medieval Times. DOING is better than watching. |
Anonymous
GRECO day is at Chesterbrook. It has been around perhaps 20 years. It is not a field trip. It involves an unbelievable amount of parental support. The kids dress up in an ancient outfit of their choice. There Are activities for each Ancient civilization. It has binders that explain things that are handed down each year. |
Anonymous
Oh, ok. Thanks! You wrote “Luray Caverns” and after, in parentheses put the info about GRECO Day so I thought maybe it was something held out in Luray. Luray Caverns seems like it might not be a bad idea for a field trip, but it would make for a long day. |
Anonymous
I put the field trip for tha year and then in () the "big" day at the school. |
Anonymous
| My kid is only in 3rd grade, but we just pay the class fee ($50, I think) at the start of the year. We don’t pay for field trips individually. Over the years, they’ve gone to the zoo, Cox Farms, art museum, Mount Vernon, and more. |
Anonymous
| Jamestown was way too crowded and too long. There are so many closer colonial things to see and do in this area. It is nice when the PTA pays for the kids that can't afford it, but it is embarrassing for them to have to ask, or for their parents to have to ask. And then their parents can't chaperone because the PTA isn't going to pay for the parent. I don't think the kids remember a thing from there. I saw kids' faces fall when I told them how much the trip was going to cost, and even though I told them their parents could ask for help, they were worried. I was never a free lunch kid, but money was tight, and I would have not have wanted to go home and ask my mom for $70. I would have just said I didn't want to go and stayed at school and pretended not to care. |
Anonymous
Same for Shrevewood. |
Anonymous
Not all schools go on these long or pricier field trips. Our school has a FARMs rate of about 6% and they don't go to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Medieval Times, etc. |
Anonymous
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I think our most expensive field trip has been $10 - there have been a couple of those. (Kennedy Center is one.)
Our PTA budgets about $4,000/year for field trips to help offset the cost for parents. |
Anonymous
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I remember thinking how crazy it was taking the kids to Medieval Times for educational purposes. But like someone else said, try telling a kid that!
For both kids in middle school the most expensive I had to pay was $85 for the 8th grade trips to the Baltimore Aquarium and I want to say the trips included food, but I could be wrong. I paid $125 for my daughter to do a special AP Bio overnight camping trip. That wasn't a field trip, though. It was an optional extracurricular learning opportunity. |
Anonymous
That must be a recent development. When my high schoolers were there, they only went to the pumpkin patch, the movies (multiple times) , and once they went to My Vernon for about 15 minutes. |