You would think that because I am from the Orlando Area that there would be a ton of field trip ideas and options for me with all the great parks nearby. Even for Florida Residents, the parks can be really expensive to go to for field trips. This year, one sweet teacher on our team decided to take on the task of finding us an inexpensive standards driven field trip. She came up with a local trip that I'm super excited to share with you! :) Today we visited the Clermont Historic Village Museum! The Historical Society offers a free tour of the location, so all we had to do was pay for busses. Since it's a local trip, we only had to charge the kids and chaperones four dollars to cover the cost! In the days leading up to the trip, I prepared some activites to help the students understand the concept of life long ago versus now. I messaged a few of my firstie blogging friends to see if anyone had a pack to cover Then and Now concepts. Thankfully, Ashley over at Flying High in First Grade had a unit already to go! :) She has several great little activities in the pack! :) I started out by introducing the concept of Then & Now with this book by Robin Nelson. It was a quick read, and then I was able to jump into the sort that Ashley provided in her pack! :)
I shared a slide show I made of another local historical landmark called 'The Citrus Tower'. At the very top is an observation deck. In the observation deck, there are pictures of what our town looked like 50 years ago. *Our town is fairly young. It used to just be acres or orange groves!*
To prep for the trip, I made a scavenger's hunt filled with pictures of places that we would see at the Historical Village. I made a parent copy in color, so that they would know exactly how the kids were to fill things out...and a black and white copy for the kids. Each parent also had a list of the names of the children in their group to keep track of them!
Each chaperone had a shopping bag with clipboards, pencils, and their packets. Scavenger's hunts are GREAT ways to keep kids engaged in looking for things to learn!
In several spots, I asked the kids to discuss then and now topics with a peer, with their group, with their chaperone, or even with me! I explained to them that their goal was to get as many of the boxes X-ed out as they could! :)
We had a really great time! :) I'd encourage you to check out your local historical society as well! :0) Inexpensive...and full of rich experiences to highlight your then and now studies! :)
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