Today I’m sharing my 5 field trip essentials for teachers and I’m so excited! We love going on field trips, and they’re usually a weekly occurrence for us – sometimes more than once. We love to be out in the community, visiting and exploring new places. But all of these field trips have definitely come with some lessons. And now there’s 5 essentials that I make sure we have on us every field trip. These are the things that we have found the most helpful – and needed when we are out and about.
1. A Backpack
You may have read my blog post where I talked about why I don’t have a teacher backpack. But, I do use a backpack for when we go out on field trips. And there’s a few reason why I do this;
- It’s easier to have one backpack with all the essentials in. We all know that everything is in the backpack – so it’s easy to find items that we need. Especially if we are in a hurry.
- Keeping a backpack specifically for field trips means that I can keep a lot of stuff in there ready for next time – meaning being organized in advance.
- You can take a backpack in turns for staff to carry. Perfect if you’re out for a long day and you want to give yourself a rest.
- A backpack is easy to put on your back and keep your hands free. No more carrying carrier bags full of items.
2. Emergency Contacts Book
This has saved my behind SO many times, I can’t even tell you! It’s just a really small ring binder that has a page for each student laminated. It contains their date of birth, emergency contact details, addresses, allergies, medication. Anything that we might need to know should anything happen.
But this has also been amazing to have incase something happens and we just need to get in touch. For example, once our travel back from a field trip was delayed because of a traffic accident, so we were able to quickly get in touch with all parents and let them know we would be arriving back to school late.
It’s also helpful if you have staff rotating and are unsure about a students medical history, their needs or allergies. It means you can just quickly get that mini ring binder out and all the important information is there.
3. First Aid Kit
You never know when you’re going to need a first aid kit. And sometimes it could be when you’re somewhere that there isn’t one close by. So, I like to have a little first aid packet with all the basics in just so that we have something on hand. Things like;
- Plasters
- Gauze dressings
- Bandages
- Safety pins
- Gloves
- Tweezers
- Scissors
- Cleansing wipes
- Thermometer
- Eye wash
- Ice pack
- Sunscreen
I know some schools also have creams and things inside their first aid kit. For this, I would speak to the person in charge of first aid at your school – or school nurse. And then get permission for individual students too.
4. Bottles of Water
So, remember how I said that the student emergency contacts book has been helpful to get in touch with families if we are delayed? Or something happens? This is one of those times where it absolutely makes sense to have bottles of water – or something your students will drink – handy. Especially if the weather changes or you’ve been stuck somewhere and no access to drinks.
It’s the same for staff too. A lot of the times, staff will be so busy getting students ready that they end up forgetting to grab themselves a drink and it’s so handy to have some spares in the backpack.
5. Snacks
Again, like with the bottles of water, it’s always helpful to have snacks handy. Although – try to keep it a secret! You don’t want your students knowing that your bag has lots of good snacks inside! We like to keep them for times when maybe we haven’t been able to stop for food yet. Or we’re running late.. or even if we’re out for food but there’s a long wait time and it’s past lunch time for our students.
Snacks are also handy if anything has happened to, like an accident or injury. It’s amazing how distracting a snack can be for a student, but also how helpful too! And again, they also come in handy for staff. So often us staff get real distracted by looking after students so we forget to look after ourselves – and that includes eating too! For this reason alone, snacks can be very beneficial to keep on hand.
Now if you’re stuck for ideas of snacks, first of all check what your students like to eat. What type of snacks do their families send in for them? Start there. But you can also try the following too;
- Fruit – we would get fresh fruit each morning from our school kitchen and take it with us.
- Cookies/biscuits.
- Cereal bars.
- Crisps.
- Crackers.
If you’re packing fresh each trip you can of course take sandwiches and things that are fresh. However it’s also handy to have some snacks in there that will last over a period of time just incase you ever forget to put fresh snacks in.
So there are my 5 field trip essentials for teachers. What about you? What are your field trip essentials for teachers when you take your students out? Let me know in the comments below.
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