school field trips in spanish

Specialty Spanish

Ideas and Resources for Spanish Teachers

Spanish In School Field Trips

At the beginning of my career, field trips were a highlight for students and teachers. As time when on, less field trips were approved, and then Covid hit. After the pandemic, field trips are making a comeback! But what about Spanish In School Field Trips? If you haven’t considered them, keep reading to find out why you should!

Why In School Field Trips for Spanish Class?

There are a variety of reasons why a Spanish In School Field Trip might be appropriate. Here is a short list of benefits:

-They are often less expensive for students than leaving the school

-There is less to organize! (No bus, subs, chaperones)

-There are often lots of grants/scholarships available to cover the cost

-There is less liability for the teacher and school. No worries about losing a kid, bad behavior when there are a small number of adults to handle situations that arise, etc.

Spanish In School Field Trip Companies

Did you know that you can invite a professional company into your school instead of taking your students out of school? There are lots of dance companies and cultural presentations that students are excited to learn about. You can get on a mailing list to see when they might be in the area! Some are interactive and ask students to participate on stage or in the audience!

Classroom Guests

Another kind of Spanish In School Field Trip is to use your “natural resources”! At the beginning of a new school year, I send home a form with my students. I ask parents if they or someone they know (friend or family member) is a Spanish-speaker. Would they be interested in coming to our class to speak about how they use Spanish in their life or job?

This has been a wonderful way to connect with the community and to give students a way to share of themselves and their culture. I have had a grandfather talk about holiday traditions in Peru, a mother who uses Spanish in her social services job, an uncle who works in Cyber Security who talked to my AP Spanish class about his work (it related to career planning and the Science and Technology unit) and more!

Click here to grab my Parent Engagement documents if you are considering inviting a class guest!

Spanish Subjunctive Game: Speed Counseling!

Spanish Seal of Biliteracy Test Prep Bundle

Vacaciones en España Culture Presentation with Linked Activities Past Tense

Parent Engagement documents

Other Posts You May Like

Summertime for Spanish Teachers

Spanish Speaking Proficiency: Class Activities

The Seal of Biliteracy

AP Lesson Plan, Posters, Lesson Plan Templates, Goal-Setting, Presentations How-To Handouts, and more!

Get the password to my FREE Resource Library!!

Click here!

Spanish Field Trips

By – Allison Wienhold

Inside: Fun Spanish field trips. If you need an idea of a Spanish field trip, you are in the right place.

Student engagement in Spanish class is always a big goal. Field trips are a fantastic way to immerse students in the Spanish language and culture. Spanish field trips also provide real-world learning experiences.

My Experience with Spanish Field Trips

As a secondary Spanish teacher for many years, I know students love getting to leave the school. In my experience, the private school I taught at was much more lenient about field trips. It did not have as many hoops to jump through and forms for approval. They were so lenient, they let my maternity leave sub take my Spanish 4 to a Mexican restaurant on a field trip.

There was a great authentic Mexican restaurant about 15 minutes away that we visited each year. It had a large space and let us make reservations for a large group. We also asked them to only talk in Spanish with the students.

The year The Book of Life came out I got to take my Spanish 4 the film The Book of Life in 3D. We also had lunch at Chapala with Spanish conversation.

Once I moved to a public school I had to beg to take my students anywhere. Bussing was very limited during the day, so it was impossible to get a new field trip approved. 9I was denied taking students to Coco when it came out). The only trip I was able to take was with my Spanish club. We ate lunch at an authentic restaurant and visited a Mexican grocery store.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of taking your students on Spanish field trips and offer some ideas to get you started.

Benefits of Spanish Field Trips

Feel free to use these on your field trip request form! It helps if you can also connect to Hispanic Heritage Month .

Cultural Immersion: Field trips can provide students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish-speaking world. Whether it’s visiting a Spanish restaurant, attending a cultural festival, or exploring a local Hispanic neighborhood, students will have the chance to experience authentic Spanish culture firsthand.

Authentic Spanish Practice: Field trips offer students the chance to practice their Spanish in real-life situations. Students have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world scenarios.

Increased Motivation: Field trips are exciting and fun. This can help increase students’ motivation to learn Spanish. By providing them with engaging and memorable experiences, you can inspire a love for the language.

Ideas for Spanish Field Trips

I understand rural schools have more limited access to authentic Spanish field trips. You might need to travel farther or be more creative with your field trips in Spanish class. Or I have in school field trip ideas as well.

Visit an Authentic Restaurant

Take your students to a local Spanish-speaking restaurant. They can try authentic cuisine and practice ordering food in Spanish. As mentioned above, visiting a local authentic Mexican restaurant was my go-to Spanish field trip.

Attend a Cultural Festival

Check to see if there are any Spanish-speaking cultural festivals or events in your area. Take students to experience the music, dance, and food of the Spanish-speaking world. Universities, colleges, and local tourism offices are great places to start your festival research.

Explore a Hispanic Neighborhood

Take your students on a walking tour of a local Hispanic neighborhood. They can explore shops, restaurants, and other businesses while practicing their Spanish language skills. For example Pilsen in Chicago or the Eastside of Des Moines, IA.

Visit a Museum

Many museums have exhibits dedicated to Spanish art, history, and culture. Take your students on a guided tour of a museum or art gallery to learn more about the Spanish-speaking world.

For example, when I was in high school, my Spanish class visited the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen, Chicago. This museum is free by the way! We visited the museum during the Day of the Dead exhibit, walked around Pilsen, and ate lunch at a Spanish restaurant. (This means we did 3 of the suggestions to get the most out of our bus ride to Chicago).

Attend a Show

Look at the offerings for programs from colleges and universities. For example, 1,2,3 Andres is coming to perform at my local university next year. It would be perfect for elementary Spanish students. Or if live theater is not an option, a movie related to Spanish class.

Cooking Class

Organize a cooking class where students can learn to make traditional dishes. They can also practice their Spanish language skills. This is a great option if you are in a rural area without many places to go. Bring in a native Spanish-speaking chef, or even a community member. This cooking class could take place in your school’s family & consumer science kitchen.

We did this when I was student teaching in rural Illinois. My cooperating teacher was from Venezuela. We spent a day of Spanish 4 in the home ec trailer where he instructed the class in Spanish how to make arepas. This was a part of a cooking unit.

More In-School Spanish Field Trip Ideas

In addition to the cooking class above, here are more ideas if you can’t leave the school.

• Classroom Guests who speak Spanish (parents, employees, or community members)
• Bring in a Hispanic food truck
• Hispanic dance performances – go to one or bring them in

Travel Videos of the Spanish-speaking World

• Have students learn all about different places each week with NEW Spanish Speaking Countries martes del mapa 2024 .
• For exploratory students use Spanish Speaking Countries Videos in ENGLISH
• Learn more >> Teaching Spanish Speaking Countries

More Spanish Field Trip Ideas

• Contact the Spanish club or honor society at a local university & do something together
• Visit the embassy of a Spanish-speaking country
• Go to a Hispanic dance or theater performance
• Go to an authentic Mexican grocery store
• Do a Scavenger Hunt on the field trip with Heritage students
• Attend a minor league baseball or other sporting event with Spanish-speaking players. Plan a meeting to get to chat with the players in Spanish.

Tips for Planning a Successful Field Trip

• Plan Ahead: Research the destination and plan the itinerary in advance. Communicate this plan with all adults to ensure a smooth and successful trip. Pay in advance if possible to ensure everyone is covered.
• Set Learning Objectives: Clearly define the learning objectives for the field trip and communicate them to your students beforehand. For example, make it clear if & when students are expected to use Spanish.
• Provide Context: Give your students background information about the destination. Also, explain what they can expect to see and do during the trip.
• Prepare Activities: If you teach younger students, plan activities or games to keep students engaged. This is especially helpful if you know there will be downtime and you want them to practice Spanish during the trip. As a camp counselor, I always had many decks of cards in my “bag-of-tricks” to pass out to kids to use.
• Follow-up: After the field trip, reflect on the experience with your students. Discuss what they learned and how it enhanced their understanding of the Spanish language and culture.

In conclusion, field trips are a fantastic way to enhance your students’ learning experience and immerse them in the Spanish language and culture. By providing them with engaging and memorable experiences, you can inspire a love for the language that will stay with them long after they leave your classroom.

More Spanish Culture

• Spanish Culture Incorporate More in Class
• Teaching Spanish Speaking Countries
• NEW Spanish Speaking Countries martes del mapa 2024

Want Colombian Culture Without Leaving the Classroom?

Grab these free culture of Colombia slides that pair perfectly with Encanto .

• Read more about: culture

Allison Wienhold

You might also like....

Juegos Olímpicos 2024 in Spanish Class

Good Cinco de mayo movies

Earth day in Spanish Class – El medio ambiente

Solar Eclipse in Spanish Class

Find what you need.

© Mis Clases Locas • Website by KristenDoyle.co

The best Spanish class field trips in the U.S.

Are you a teacher looking to take your Spanish class on a field trip? A trip abroad to a Spanish-speaking country is the capstone experience for many students studying Spanish in high school. However, there are many reasons why it’s hard to take a field trip abroad, and with the COVID pandemic, many teachers are looking at multiple years of not being able to take their students out of the country.

In addition, the high cost prevents many students from being able to go on trips to other countries. Or, if students are undocumented, they can’t leave the country, and a trip abroad is impossible for them.

An alternative to trips abroad is taking a longer field trip within the United States. The good thing is, the United States has a huge Spanish-speaking population and a rich history of Spanish culture in many places.

While at first glance it may seem like a field trip within the United States is not as exciting, there are lots of benefits. Besides the aforementioned reasons for student participation, here are a few other reasons to take a trip within the good ol’ USA.

Advantages for Spanish class field trips in the U.S.

• The cost is generally lower
• You don’t have to worry about being away from good medical care
• Communication is easier because students’ normal cell phones will work
• You may be able to drive there and avoid flying
• Students don’t need to get passports or visas
• It will give students a better understanding of the history of the U.S. and the diversity within their own country.

I’ll bet that just about everybody in the contiguous 48 states has a great field trip that their Spanish class could take within a day’s drive of their hometown.

The following best Spanish class field trips in the U.S. are places that I’ve visited that are historically and culturally significant, have enough things to do for an overnight field trip, and are geographically diverse. Don’t forget that the best field trip might be connecting with Spanish-speakers in your own state!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase you’ll help support this blog at no extra cost to you.

Miami, Florida: Little Havana

Miami is home to over a million Cubans and people with Cuban heritage. A visit to the Little Havana neighborhood means that you are guaranteed to hear Spanish in the streets. As you walk, don’t miss the colorful street art.

There are plenty of places to try a Cuban sandwich or coffee (strong and with sugar). Do a walking food tour and try the guava pastries and empanadas while you learn about the neighborhood’s history.

You’ll want to visit Domino Park, which has been made famous again by the song Patria y Vida . There is also an interesting monument to poet José Marti.

If you take students you’ll want to call ahead and plan a visit to the Bay of Pigs Museum . Veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion staff the museum and provide a first-hand account of events.

Boise, Idaho: Basque Block

While you wouldn’t normally think of taking a Spanish class field trip to Idaho, the Boise area is home to one of the largest populations of Basque immigrants in the world. There is a dedicated Basque Block that includes a cultural center, restaurants, a museum, and more. There is even an indoor Jai Alai court where students can learn to play this fast-paced handball game, similar to Basque pelota. Add in some pintxos for lunch, a museum visit, and a performance from the Oinkari Basque Dancers and you’ve got a very special day!

Find out more about the Basque Block here .

Chicago, Illinois: Pilsen Neighborhood

The Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago has a number of student-friendly sites to see, including street art and the National Museum of Mexican Art . There are plenty of Mexican and Central American restaurants in the area.

Here is a summary of all the things to do in Pilsen . You can also read about the trip to Chicago my students and I took.

The Humbolt Park neighborhood has Puerto Rican roots and is home to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture.

Chicago is known for its theatre scene, and a handful of theaters, including Teatro Vista , have plays in Spanish.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe provides the quintessential Southwest experience. It is a unique city that combines art, indigenous peoples and cultures, Spanish colonial history, and nature in a way that makes its motto “the city different” fit perfectly.

The New Mexico History Museum is a must-see to learn about the region’s history before exploring. There are numerous historical churches where you can learn about the Spanish missionaries.

As you enjoy the unique adobe-style architecture, don’t forget to stop at The Palace of the Governors, which was built by the Spanish in 1611 and is still in use today!

If students get tired of history, there are hands-on art classes and photography tours available and you can even do a student-friendly scavenger hunt. hike part of the historic Santa Fe Trail .

Tucson, Arizona: Spanish missions

Stretching from California to Texas and beyond is a chain of missions created by the Spanish missionaries as they settled in the Southwest. Some are only ruins but others like San Xavier de Bac in Southern Arizona (below) are well-preserved. A trip to Tucson could include the Tumacácori National Historic Park , the first mission to be located in what is today Arizona.

Tucson sprung up from the Presidio San Agustin de Tucson , founded by the Spanish in 1775. Today you can visit this reconstructed living history museum to learn about early Native Americans, Presidio residents and Territorial Period settlers.

Tucson is known for its gastronomy so why not try a Taco Bike Tour ?

San Antonio, Texas

So many of us know the legend of the Alamo , and San Antonio would be a great place to learn more about this famous landmark and the nuanced Tejano history around it.

Although the Alamo is the most famous, there are a number of other Spanish missions nearby that might be better for exploring the daily life of Tejanos. San Antonio Missions is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes four distinct areas each a few miles apart. Take a tour like this one and see four different missions.

Taking a boat ride on the famous Riverwalk would be a sure hit with students. There are dozens of restaurants here, and you can be sure to be entertained by a mariachi band.

New York City

New York is home to people from every Spanish-speaking country in the world. Here is a guide to which neighborhoods are where. The New York City area has over a million Dominicans, so it would be an obvious place to explore the culture of the Dominican Republic.

New York is synonymous with theatre, and there is sure to be a play in Spanish to enjoy at one of these Latin theaters . Also check out The Metropolitan Museum) to see what exhibits they have on, as there is always something that relates to Spain or Latin America.

St. Augustine, Florida: The cradle of the US

St. Augustine is home to the first continuously occupied European settlement in what is today the United States. Decades before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, it was the Spanish that settled here, not the English. Take a walking tour of the city to learn about its history.

You can tour the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and see a canon firing and historical re-enactments on the weekends and holidays. There are a number of other museums that tell the history of the Spanish in Florida and the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park that has demonstrations of indigenous and Spanish ways of life like blacksmithing.

If you are more interested in history than language, this would be a good choice for your students. It would also be a great place to critically study the representation of history and how tourism and history interact. St. Augustine is a popular place for field trips, and there are lots of other things to do in St. Augustine .

San Diego/Tijuana border

In college I took a life-changing trip to the San Diego/Tijuana border area to study border issues. We met with leaders of groups with opposing ideologies, like the Minute Men who would unofficially patrol the border and the Border Angels who would leave food and water in the desert for migrants trying to cross. I would guess that the Border Patrol is no longer giving tours, but you could probably have an agent speak to your students.

Friendship Park, where the border fence disappears into the Pacific Ocean, is open to the public on weekends, and the public art and memorials to those who have died crossing the border are a moving tribute.

The other place to see public art is Chicano Park . A historic example of community organizing, Chicano Park is an open area that is home to dozens of murals by Chicano and Latino artists celebrating their culture.

A visit to see the architecture and gardens of Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo would be a hit with students.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Let’s not forget that Puerto Rico is part of the United States! While, yes, you would need to fly there, many of the other advantages listed above are still valid. Your students can get a true Spanish immersion experience within the U.S.

Sites to see include the colorful Old San Juan The San Juan National Historic Site includes a number of forts and castles, including the commanding El Morro overlooking the ocean. You could easily book a salsa class or the Flavors of Old San Juan Food Tour .

Outside of San Juan, a day trip to El Yunque National Forest would be great for students looking for adventure, as it can include hiking to a waterfall, wildlife spotting, and kayaking.

A lesser-known spot is the town of Loiza. You’ll probably need to rent a car to get there, but it is home to a large Afro-latino population that is doing amazing things with bomba music and dance, plus art that celebrates this colorful heritage.

I hope this list of the best Spanish class field trips in the U.S. has given you some ideas of great places to take your Spanish students! If you have suggestions of other places, I would love to hear them in the comments below!

Share this:

About The Author

Related Posts

Getting to the roots of language and power with Chalk Talk for heritage learners

Living History Museum: Cuban Bay of Pigs Survivors in Miami

1 thought on “the best spanish class field trips in the u.s.”.

Great cities to visit! I’ve been to several of them and I was fascinated by the missions in San Diego and San Antonio. A good related book to recommend to students is Texas by James Michener. He goes into a lot of detail about life and history of the missions.

Comments are closed.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

La Libre Language Learning

Empower All Learners. End the Overwhelm. Teach for Proficiency.

Virtual Field Trips for Spanish Class

March 5, 2021 by Devon 2 Comments

Teaching culture in an asynchronous Spanish classroom or with distance learning has never been more fun with virtual field trips! But don’t fret, this isn’t yet another trendy digital tool to ovewhelm your middle or high school students – it uses all the same tools like google slides, youtube videos, and google earth to bring Hispanic and Latinx culture to your classroom or remote learning environment.

If you’re a Spanish teacher looking for a way to bring real, immersive culture to Spanish class, then virtual field trips are easy to make in under an hour with the right framework. This post will also show you how to find great virtual field trips for in-person, hybrid, or completely virtual instruction using over 90%, sometimes 100% target language!

What are virtual field trips for students?

First let’s start with what a virtual field trip is. This is a digital classroom tool either through google classroom, a collection of links and resources organized through google slides, or a field trip found from an official site like national geographic or cultural landmark from the target culture: think zoos, museums, etc. Click here for a list of 9 other distance learning resources for Spanish class in addition to this great tool.

My favorite way to make them is to find the authentic resources I’m usually using to help students connect with a culture, like youtube videos, articles, websites, and travel guides from a city that focus in on a specific theme.

However, you can structure your virtual field trip around any unit or theme, anything from how people dress in Lake Titicaca to where to find the best restaurants in Cusco, Peru.

What is the purpose of a virtual field trip?

This distance learning tool or all-around powerhouse digital Spanish resource is both to immerse your students in an organized and meaningful cultural experience with zero travel. Did I mention it’s also easy for the teacher? It makes a country jump off the page instead of just having pictures or simple descriptions of a place, you SHOW, not TELL students how people behave, their customs, their important landmarks, and the colorful landscape of their home.

It’s also invaluable for intercultural competence. Using something as simple as Google Earth is an easy way for students to “walk on the streets” of Oaxaca, Mexico. There’s no room for preconceived notions or stereotypes. Students can see with their own eyes what a place and its people are truly like.

Go beyond your Spanish Textbook

Honestly, my favorite reason to favor virtual field trips as a digital tool in Spanish class is how much it helps you to incorporate authentic resources and native Speakers in an approachable, organized tool without a textbook. Whether you use a textbook or not, you can incorporate these into any topic-based unit or cultural focus of your year.

It brings culture, vocabulary, and language to life!

How do you do a virtual field trip?

There are so many ways to make a virtual field trip happen in your middle school classroom. You can have students explore a city or country independently by assigning a guided link-based field trip, or you could walk through a place with them. You could also get as specific as a certain landmark or museum.

Empathetic Global Learners through Virtual Field Trips

Get all the ideas you need from how to create your own virtual field trips, where to look for authentic resources, and the 6 common mistakes that teachers make when creating them for Spanish class in this video:

Where can I find virtual field trips?

The possibilities are ENDLESS! You can find great ones on individual websites for big landmarks especially through National Geographic – the trouble with these is that many will be in English.

Virtual Field Trips with Google

If you Google your digital voyage, you can use the ultra-versatile Google Earth to get a 360 panoramic satellite view of any place on earth! (even your own house – for real).

You can also use the virtual reality of Google Expeditions – an app that takes them even further.

Museum Virtual Field Trips & Other Ideas

Another great source to bring cultures and places to life is 360cities.net. Here you can get panoramic photos for your virtual tours in several languages. Just change to Spanish and you’re good to go! many museums are included.

My other favorite place to look for ready-made field trips is this spectacular list from DitchThatTextbook.com. They’ve compiled 20+ places you can explore to find great field trip ideas that are already produced. However, they’re not in the target language, so you can browse for ideas to get creative.

Spanish Virtual Field Trips with Links

If you’re ready to jump straight into virtual field trips and don’t want to spend the time it takes to curate a completely 100% in Spanish digital resource, check out these ready-made ones with various cultural focuses:

These are flying off of the shelves as my newest best-sellers at La Libre Language Learning, and I’m so excited to share them with you. Which one should I make next? Have you tried making or using virtual field trips in your class before? Let me know in the comments below!

All of these distance learning projects are oriented around proficiency style teaching. Have you ever wished it was easier to make this happen in your class? Click here to get my 9 Steps to Transition to Proficiency (no matter where you’re starting from) Toolkit to make CI easy.

P.S. – Did you catch the class on how to use virtual field trips and create your own? Here’s the link to the class.

Rooting for you ,

Reader Interactions

September 16, 2022 at 13:38

Is there any other link to these trips that is not teacher pay teacher. My district has teacher pay teacher blocked and I am unable to research any of these links.

October 1, 2022 at 11:09

I’m really sorry about that Daisy. Seeing as 85% of teachers in the US use that website, this is where I post all of my pre-made resources.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Latest on Instagram

Featured Posts

World Language Teachers Furthering the Conversation on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

Creating and working towards fostering a de-colonized, culturally relevant and responsive world language classroom is some DEEP work that also results in wildly magnifying your students’ results in your classroom and effectiveness as a teacher. This journey to examine our own roles as both participants and enablers in a rather broken education system based on […]

Latest on Facebook

Latest from TPT Shop

Latest on youtube channel.

Spanish Mama

Teaching Spanish & Spanglish Living

Food Truck Day: A Fun Field Trip Idea for Spanish Class

Inside:  Looking for field trip ideas for Spanish class? Try a food truck day !

I am so pleased to share this post from Courtney Nygaard at  Profe Nygaard ! Instead of trying to take your classes out on a field trip, bring the field trip to you. Getting started will be easy with her (very organized) ten steps to making it happen. Enjoy!

Are you interested in hosting a Food Truck Day at your school? For the past three years, I have planned a Food Truck day for my high school Spanish students and it has become one of the highlights of the year. All year long my students ask me if we are going to have our Food Truck Day again. I know the idea of planning an event like this can be overwhelming, but don’t worry! From the experience I’ve gained over the past three years, I’ve come up with ten steps to planning a Food Truck Day at school. In this post, you’ll learn how to successfully organize a Food Truck Day and additionally, how to use it as a fundraiser.

1. GET IT APPROVED BY YOUR PRINCIPAL.

It may seem obvious, but the first thing you need to do is make sure hosting this event is approved by your principal. You want to make sure you are complying with school rules and aligning the event to the school calendar as best as possible. Nothing worse than planning a large event only to find that students have standardized testing or a field trip for another class.

2. PLAN TEACHER SUPERVISION DURING LUNCHES

This step will depend on how your school’s lunch schedule is set-up. At my school, we have three lunches. I coordinated with the other Spanish teachers to make sure that someone was outside during each lunch. One thing I did to ensure teacher supervision at all times was physically bringing one of my classes outside to sit on the lawn and work on their assignment. They enjoyed the chance to be outside for the hour and I was able to supervise the event. If this won’t work for you, you may need to request that your school provide a substitute for the hour you will be outside supervising the event.

3. SURVEY STUDENTS

I survey my students using a Google Form before I contact the food trucks. I make it clear that students will need to pay around $10 for their lunch which influences some students’ decision, depending on their economic situation. Of course, I wish every student could participate, but ultimately this event is a fundraiser which ends up funding other activities for all students later on in the year. If students choose to not participate in the event they simply attend lunch in the cafeteria as usual.

In the survey, I ask them for their name, what lunch they have, and if they plan to eat at the food trucks that day. This survey is conducted before I contact the food trucks, because in order to get a food truck to agree to attend, they need to know the approximate amount of students they will be serving. This survey also informs me how many food trucks I need to contact.

At my school, our lunches are very short (about twenty-five minutes). It’s important to know how many students will need to be fed in the amount of time you have allotted for your school’s lunch. Knowing this information allows the food truck (who is well versed in their serving capacities) to know whether or not it is possible to serve the number of students you have, in the amount of time your school allows.

4. CONTACT THE FOOD TRUCKS AND SET A DATE

Now that you have an approximate student count for who will be eating lunch at the food trucks, you can begin to contact food trucks in your area. The first year of setting this up is always the trickiest. Food trucks need to be sure that it will be worth their time and can be hesitant to come to an event that will also have another food truck. In my case, I had 181 students that planned to eat lunch at the food trucks all within an hour and a half time span across our three lunches. So I needed two food trucks.

If you need multiple vendors, find food trucks that are available on the same date and inform them of the number of students, the time crunch, and arrival details. Be sure to ask about their electrical needs so you can be sure that they are close enough to the building to run an extension cord if they don’t have a generator.

It must be worth their time. The following year, a food truck actually initiated contact with me because they wanted to do this event again. The second year I hosted this event I asked if they would be willing to do this as a fundraiser for our Spanish classes. They were more than happy to donate 10% of the profit to our Spanish classes! This was great because we have been able to use the funds earned from our Food Truck Day to pay for our  Three Kings Day party  with our students.

5. ALERT NECESSARY PERSONNEL ABOUT THE EVENT

Now that the date is finalized, you will want to alert necessary personnel. Contact the city about the area in which the food trucks will be parking (this may or may not be necessary for you). Put in a request to your custodial staff for several large garbage cans to be placed nearby on the day of the event. Also, make sure to contact your lunch monitors about the passes you will be using for students to be excused to leave the cafeteria for the event.

6. CONTACT PARENTS

Your event is starting to take shape! Send out an e-mail to parents alerting them of the event. Some parents may need extra time to get $10 together, so it’s important to be conscientious of all income levels. Attach the food truck menus, along with the prices. Inform parents that this event is optional; their son or daughter does not need to participate, and that if they prefer their child to each lunch in the cafeteria like normal, they may.

7. MAKE PASSES

Because of the time crunch, it’s likely that students will need a late-to-class pass. They may need an extra fifteen minutes of lunchtime so they can order their food, and have the time to eat it. If you would like a free download of these late-to-class passes and an event checklist you can get those  here.

Something new that I’ll be doing for my Food Truck Day this year, is color coding the lunch-passes according to the lunch time-slots. This pass will be used to show the lunch monitors that a student is free to go outside for lunch. Additionally, this pass will help in identifying which students belong at each lunch as there tends to be a time overlap outside. Basically, if a student has first lunch, I want to quickly identify that they do not belong outside during third lunch. This will prevent students from abusing the system, skipping class and staying outside too long.

This event is exclusive for Spanish class students (or whichever language department is hosting your event) so passes work as an effective way to easily tell who is supposed to be there.

*Note: I don’t give students the late to class passes in advance. I give these to them if and when a particular lunch is ending, and they are still eating outside.

8. GO OVER THE MENU WITH STUDENTS

You will want to go over the menu and prices with students ahead of time. Remind them to bring cash and make sure students who have food sensitivities or allergies are aware of what’s on the menu. This is a great time to go over the vocabulary and key phrases for ordering food in Spanish (or again, whichever language department is hosting this event).

9. SURVEY STUDENTS AGAIN

The week of the event, survey students again in order to give a more accurate number to the food trucks.

10. CONTACT SCHOOL LUNCH STAFF & TEACHERS

With the latest numbers, notify the school lunch staff of how many students will not be eating lunch in the cafeteria that day. This helps the school reduce food waste.

Send out an e-mail to all teachers letting them know some of their students may be arriving late to class (with a pass) that day. Attach a photo of the late-to-class pass in this email. This will give teachers an idea of what to look for in the event a student were to arrive late to their class.

Also, inform teachers that they are more than welcome to purchase lunch at the event themselves. Notifying them additionally, that the best time-frame to do so will be before/after normal school lunch slots if they prefer not to wait in line. Some teachers have prep during those times. The lines will most likely be long during lunches, and it is always a good idea to look out for your colleagues.

FINAL TIPS FOR THE DAY OF THE EVENT

The day of the event I have a Bluetooth speaker outside playing upbeat music in Spanish, which always adds a nice vibe. Since students eat out on the lawn, some of them bring blankets to sit on, which I think is a great idea!

As lunch times change, ask students to show you their pass, so you can verify whether or not they should still be there. If they need more time to finish eating, give them a late-to-class pass.

Final note: You may be concerned about students who cannot afford to eat lunch at the food truck. As this event is a fundraiser, you could use the funds you raise this year as scholarships for next year’s event. So in the year following, the students’ whose family may not be able to afford it would simply need to check a box on the Google Form survey stating that they would need a scholarship in order to participate.

You should be able to prepay with the vendor in order to get pre-paid tokens allowing students to order pre-determined food options. Pass the tokens out to your students the morning of the event. At this point, you should be set for a cultural experience you and your students can thoroughly enjoy!

Courtney Nygaard is a high school Spanish teacher in Minnesota. She also runs a website called  Profe Nygaard  and a travel blog called  Travel For Days . You can find Courtney’s teaching resources for your Spanish class at her Teachers Pay Teachers store –  Profe Nygaard . 

DO YOU HAVE MORE FUN FIELD TRIP IDEAS FOR SPANISH CLASS?

Leave a comment below and tell us about them. 

Like it? Pin it!

Similar Posts

Back to School Plans: First Two Weeks of Spanish Class

Interviews with OPOL Families, Part 2

Expressing Thanks and Saying Happy Thanksgiving in Spanish

35 Spanish Valentine’s Day Books in Spanish for Kids

Spanish Chores and Printable Cards for kids

How to Teach Kids to Read in Spanish: A Guide for Parents

Thanks so much!! I’ve done food trucks but the logistics were tricky. Thanks for being so specific this is GREAT

Does Minnesota have any restrictions about selling food at the same time as lunches? Iowa does and I am wondering if there is any sort of work around? We planned everything with your information and inspiration and came to less than a week before the event and it had to be cancelled. We are still trying to figure out how to make this happen in Iowa.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Srta Spanish

Support for Spanish Teachers

Virtual Field Trips for Spanish Class

July 14, 2023

Are you interested in trying virtual field trips for Spanish class ? A virtual field trip is a great way to introduce a country unit, explore culture, and fill out your units! They also make great sub plans when you need to take a day off. In this post I’m going to share everything you need to know about virtual field trips for Spanish class!

Watch the Video

What can students learn from virtual field trips?

Virtual field trips are a great way to connect where and what students are learning in Spanish class! I’ve found before that many students struggle with what I would consider basic geography skills. Many of them can’t identify most of the Spanish-speaking countries on a map!

Virtual field trips allow students to see exactly where the events, celebrations, and information they’re learning about takes place. They are great to kick off a unit exploring a particular country, explore a cultural celebration, historical event, a person’s life, and so much more!

Some great virtual field trips for Spanish class include:

• Ser + Origins
• Explore Mexico

How do I host a virtual field trip?

Make sure to watch the video on my Youtube channel for a step by step! Here are the basics:

• Choose your tool
• Choose your destination
• Gather media
• Create the file in your tool of choice
• Optional: Create your handout(s)
• Optional: Plan a fast finisher or follow up activity .
• Share and assign the virtual field trip

How do I plan a virtual field trip in Spanish class?

I like to use a similar lesson plan every time I use a virtual field trip. Here’s what it looks like:

• Start of class routine (5-8 minutes)
• Daily routine (8-10 minutes)
• Explore the map (5-10 minutes)
• Pass out handouts
• Students complete virtual field trip, then choose from the fast finishers available

What is an example of a virtual field trip?

If you’d like to grab a free virtual field trip to use with your Spanish classes, sign up below to grab a trip to the Dominican Republic!

Grab a virtual field trip!

Sign up with your email address to receive freebies, news, and updates.

We highly recommend using a personal email address as some district email filters mark our messages as spam. Thank you!

Thank you for subscribing!

Looking for more?

Check out 5 tools to create virtual field trips, and pros/cons to consider when making your choice! Click here to read the post.

Learn how to create your own virtual field trip with my favorite tool! Click here to read the post for the step by step walkthrough.

Worried about the technology piece of virtual field trips? Learn from my mistakes and experience! Read about 5 Virtual Field Trip Problems, Mistakes, and Things to Avoid on the blog here .

Save this post for later!

Latest on Instagram

subscribe for updates via email!

Spanish with Stephanie

Ideas from one Spanish teacher to another

How to use virtual field trips in Spanish class

Let’s face it – none of us will be traveling abroad anytime soon. However, we can bring culture and travel into our Spanish classrooms with virtual field trips !

What is a virtual field trip?

A virtual field trip takes students to places they may never visit without the expense or hassle of finding chaperones and collecting permission slips! Virtual field trips allow students to view museum exhibits, or tour cities and other locations from the comfort of their home or classroom. The world of virtual reality (VR) has also made it possible for students to immerse themselves in new and exciting settings!

What opportunities are there for my Spanish students?

While lots of museums offer virtual tours, many of the museum websites I researched required certain plugins or extra apps that not all students could access. Therefore, I have found that the most equitable way to provide Spanish virtual field trips is through YouTube. We know that 99% of our students can access it, whether we want them to or not!

As a result, I have put together this series of virtual field trips for middle school and high school Spanish students that allow them to explore the Spanish-speaking world, while providing them with choice. The field trips come in English and Spanish, making them appropriately challenging and interesting for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students, as well as native speakers.

Virtual Field Trip to Central America

This field trip will take students to Tikal and Antigua in Guatemala, Volcán Mayasa in Nicaragua, The Great Blue Hole in Belize, the Copán Ruins in Honduras, Ruta de flores in El Salvador, Monteverde Cloud Forest and Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica or Panama Canal and Panama City, Panama!

Students have the choice to visit any of these 10 different locations in Central America through short video clips. Depending on your class and time constraints, you can assign all 10 locations, or just have them choose three to complete.

South America

On the South American virtual field trip, students will have the option to visit Catedrál de marmól in Chile, Otavalo Market in Ecuador, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, The Sacred Valley in Peru, Angel Falls in Venezuela, Perito Moreno Glacier, La Boca y Caminito in Argentina, and El Teleférico and Museo de oro in Colombia.

Spanish-Speaking countries virtual field trips

In this series, students will visit the most famous Spanish-speaking monuments and destinations in Central America, South America and Spain! Trips include Machu Piccu in Peru, The Galapagos Islands and El Centro del mundo in Ecuador, La Sagrada Familia and Alhambra in Spain, Chichen Itza in Mexico, Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, Tikal in Guatemala, Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Easter Island near Chile.

Asynchronous learning

I use these field trips in a variety of ways. For starters, they are great activities for asynchronous learning. Students work at their own pace and choose where they want to go. The directions allow them to pick 3-5 places, but you could assign them to visit one place per week or all locations by the end of the quarter. 

Fast-finishers

Another way to use these field trips is with fast finishers as a reward. Kids who finish quickly, are typically curious by nature. Rewarding them with a virtual field trip is a win-win for everyone!

Filler activities

Maybe you finished a unit on a Thursday and prefer to start the next unit on Monday. Take a virtual field trip on Friday! 

How about the day before holiday break when everyone is already mentally checked out anyway? Virtual field trip day!

Or what about those days when you as the teacher just need a day off to rest your voice, catch up on grading, or because your own family kept you up all night? Sounds like the perfect day for a virtual field trip! Your students are still learning and you don’t have to introduce anything new.

These are great to keep in your emergency sub plan binder. They are completely digital, so you can assign them from anywhere and your sub does not have to speak any Spanish to implement them. All s/he has to do is send students to your online platform and sit back and relax. Piece of cake!

Latest on Pinterest

Latest on Instagram

Latest on youtube.

Virtual Field Trips for Spanish Class: Let’s Get Digital

• August 17, 2020
• Fun , technology , Travel , virtual learning

Let’s get digital with  virtual field trips in Spanish class!  Teaching Spanish from a classroom with four walls (or now behind a computer screen) makes it challenging for our students to see the Spanish-speaking world. We can take them on local field trips to dance shows, restaurants, or markets, but it just isn’t the same as going to a Spanish-speaking country. So, virtual field trips are our next best bet.  With Google Maps, virtual tours of attractions, and YouTube, our possibilities are endless. 

Virtual field trips can be done through a few different methods.  I have created three types of virtual field trips, and I’m going to break down each of these types for you below. The first style of virtual field trip is a class-wide trip to the same destination. The second type gives students the freedom to choose their destinations and attractions. Finally, the third type of field trip is done using an online scavenger hunt. 

1. Class-wide field trip

Let’s say you’re teaching about Peru in Spanish class. Delve into the beautiful Sacred Valley or explore the streets of the capital Lima with your students. You can create a virtual field trip using Google Earth.  As the teacher, you design the tour, with an average of 5 stops along the way, written descriptions in the target language about each stop, and questions for students to follow along with.

To create this style of field trip, I recommend using Google Earth, creating a “project,” and adding “features,” which are the stops on the itinerary. Google Earth has a ton of great tools, including allowing you to add your own description of each stop… hello target language and comprehensible input! Plus, you can add images of each stop as well. With Google Earth, students jump right into the map and explore the streets, ruins, or attractions.

Notice that with the samples below, you can focus on one country or attractions around the world or even one specific tourist destination like a museum.

Sample #1 – Peru

You can see on my sample tour below, that my students will take a trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu with many stops along the way.  I accompany my field trips with a Google Slides presentation to hold students accountable for what they find and see! They can take screenshots, answer questions, watch videos, and give their opinion.

Sample #2 – The 7 Wonders of the Hispanic World

I plan on taking my Spanish 2 class to 7 Wonders of the Hispanic World through Google Earth this year. Check out this virtual field trip with a built-in scavenger hunt (learn more below)! To add a scavenger hunt, tell your students which building or attraction to jump into. Have them search for something easy to find. For example, at El Museo Guggenheim in Spain, there is an enormous sculpture of a spider. Ask students what animal sculpture is located at the entrance to the museum.

Sample #3 – Costa Rica

Here’s another one… a trip to six fun stops in Costa Rica! This virtual field trip includes short videos to show students what ziplining, painting oxcarts, and more look like. By adding videos, you are adding another element of culture that Google Earth cannot accomplish. Find short clips to enhance each stop so students feel like they are actually participating in activities at each stop. You can embed videos into a Google Slides so students have audio and visuals in addition to your written descriptions. 

Sample #4 – Frida Kahlo’s La Casa Azul

You don’t have to take a virtual field trip to a country. You can choose one specific attraction. I also use websites of museums or attractions to build interactive field trips. I created one for Frida Kahlo’s La Casa Azul Museum in Mexico.  Their website already has a virtual tour, so I designed an interactive Google Slides for students to complete as they “walk” through the museum.  You can find zoos, parks, aquariums, art museums, and more that have 360 tours built in already. This is a great alternate to using Google Maps. 

2. Pick Your Own Destination Field Trip

Student choice is very important, especially during projects. With this option, your students choose the country or attraction of their choice and report back to you.  It is best to have some guidelines and even a sign-up sheet. This makes for a great sub plan or a project for the end of a travel unit!

I think having a common template is helpful, as it will guide all students to complete similar work, but based on areas of interest to them.  Your template should include the requirements like how many stops on the itinerary, an area for pictures, written descriptions of the stops, lists of things they see, etc. Here is an interactive Google Slides template for any field trip.

3. Online Scavenger Hunt

If you want your students to have more freedom, then send them on an online scavenger hunt.  This option is oftentimes much less work for you, especially if you don’t provide the websites. You provide general questions… i.e. How much does it cost to enter the Prada museum? Where would you eat lunch after visiting the museum? What street is the museum on?  These three questions would require students to determine which site to use… the museum site, Google Maps, Yelp, etc.

Here is another blog post with fun ideas for authentic scavenger hunts at zoos, museums, stadiums, etc.

And you can even use Scavenger Hunts for art units, as students dive deeper into the artwork, such as this Diego Rivera Pan American Unity digital scavenger hunt .

What field trips do you plan on taking your students to this year? I would love to hear more authentic ideas for virtual field trips in the world language classroom.

One Response

• Pingback: Games and Activities for Spanish Geography Lessons with Countries and Capitals - Llearning Llama

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

MORE BLOG POSTS

Important Lessons I Learned from Designing a Hispanic Pop Culture Class

World of Learning’s Curriculum Storyboards I have been teaching as a virtual Spanish teacher at

9 Professional Development Books to Make You a Better World Language Teacher

As world language teachers, we are sometimes forced to sit through professional development sessions that

5 Useful End of Year Activities to Wrap Up Spanish Class

What do your lesson plans look like for the last few weeks of the school

¡Hola, I'm Courtney!

I am a high school Spanish teacher from Pennsylvania. I create authentic and engaging resources for the Spanish classroom.  On my blog, I share practical tips and strategies for teaching world languages.

Get your FREE Spanish Teacher Survival Guide!

Copyright 2021 | Llearning Llama | All rights reserved

• Heritage Curriculum
• Start a Classroom Library
• Heritage Teaching Strategies

How to Plan a Field Trip for Heritage Spanish Class

Sneak peek : How to plan a successful class field trip to a restaurant or Mexican market for heritage Spanish class. I’ve even included free links for templates you can use!

Are you interested in taking a field trip with your Heritage Spanish class? I just took my Heritage Spanish class on a field trip and it ended up being a total win. Here’s hoping my success can help inspire your success as well!

For years I thought it would be so fun to take students to El Burrito Mercado, a local iconic family-owned market and restaurant. My family and I love this place for its vibrant, kid-friendly atmosphere, sweet smells wafting out of the bakery, and delicious breakfasts. Every time I go, I think about how perfect it would be for a class field trip. Sadly, years passed and I still hadn’t gotten around to doing this field trip because, let’s face it, planning a field trip is a lot of work. 

Well, this year I finally did it, friends! I hope the ideas I share here about the experience can help you plan a local trip you and your students will never forget. I think our field trip is going to be a core high school memory for my students. For many of them, this was their first high school field trip they had gone on. I was shocked to learn this when talking to a 12th-grade student on the trip, but it makes sense in hindsight, that due to COVID there haven’t been as many field trip opportunities for students in general.

Connect to Learning

The overall goal of the field trip was to enjoy a meal at the restaurant, do a scavenger hunt of the market and the murals in the neighborhood, and just have fun together.

This year in heritage class we learned about culture through food in our family recipe project: Proyecto de la comida , and later, from a unit: Cesár Chávez and Dolores Huerta . So, a field trip such as this was the perfect way to connect back to this learning. Near the market is a big mural of César Chávez, and the market itself is also located on Cesár Chávez Street.  The “Westside,” as it is affectionately called is home to many Latino businesses and a wide array of cultural murals. Personally, I’ve always strongly felt that the best way to tie into an educational topic is to experience it for yourself! So, exploring the market followed by tacos and burritos at the restaurant was a great way to connect to our food unit, and oh so delicious. Tacos de asada for me! 🙂

Funds are an essential part of planning a field trip and it’s where you should begin. Without at least some funding, the rest won’t matter. To start, I submitted a funding request to our school’s Scholarship Foundation. I described the connection this field trip would make in terms of contributing to our learning and how this field trip provides our Latino students a chance to connect to local cultural landmarks. The Foundation only approved paying for our bus to go there and come back. This meant I had to find other ways to fund the field trip. 

The cost of the meal at the restaurant for each student was $12, so we decided that students would need to pay this fee. In a perfect world, it would be really cool to have school funding pay for all the food, so students didn’t need to pay anything. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find funds through our Equity Coordinator or anywhere else. 

I did have some funds in our Spanish Activities account I had earned from doing a Food Truck Fundraiser the previous year. In a pinch, and when the funds are not coming together as one would hope, a food truck fundraiser can be a low-cost way to bring the fun and the field trip to the front doors of your school. Using the fundraiser money, I was able to cover the $50 service fee for the staff at the restaurant, and the meals for the chaperones, and then also offer a few students scholarships that couldn’t afford the $12 but wanted to go. 

I found out my student’s ability to pay/desire to participate by having them fill out a Google Form questionnaire in order to express interest in the trip, and order food. On the form, I included a question that said “I would like to attend but cannot afford the $12. If this is true for you, please list your name below.”  If you don’t have any funds for scholarships, you could raise the price for students to a rounded number and then use the extra they pay for scholarships. For example, I could have raised the price to $15/meal and used the difference to cover some students that wanted to go but couldn’t pay. And if you don’t have a Scholarship Foundation in your district you might have to raise the price for students even more in order to cover all the costs. Small increases like this can be a deterrent, but I felt it was worth considering if doing so creates a more equitable opportunity to attend for all students.

With the bus covered, and the meals paid for by students, the only other funds needed were to have a building sub for the students that stayed behind and to cover my other classes. Our school secretary is amazing and she found a way to cover that cost for us.

Join forces with ELL class

Okay, let’s be real. Planning a field trip is a TON of work. One of the best things I did was pair up with the ELL class teacher for this. Our ELL students are all Latino this year so it was a good fit to have them go with the heritage Spanish class on this cultural field trip. The extra teacher to help with all the planning and logistics was clutch. You will also need more chaperones anyways. We reached out to parents to see if anyone wanted to attend with us and we had two parents take us up on the offer. We still needed one more adult chaperone, so we asked the school’s Multicultural Liaison to ride along.

Incentivize

In order to have a successful field trip, I highly suggest limiting who can attend the event. This year I have a group of students that consistently cause trouble in class. Their poor behavior can be a real learning block for my class at times, and with how much is going into setting up a field trip, I wanted to ensure that those attending the class outing would be those who encourage growth and learning. To be honest, their behavior completely tanks the academic environment and it has been a real pain point all year. The students that are here to learn are constantly having to deal with these students sauntering in late, making noise during FVR, and the frequent and general disruptions to our learning environment. 

I decided to require a C or higher in my class in order to be able to attend the field trip. I did this for the benefit of all my students. For the students that are consistently causing trouble and not turning in work, this served as an incentive to get their grade up in time for the field trip. For the students who already do their work, this served as a reward for them to be able to attend. You win some and you lose some. I was hopeful that a fun trip looming in the future would greatly encourage my students to reign it in, but I’m sorry to say that none of my troublemakers were able to attend the field trip. I thought the incentive of the trip would be something that would motivate them to get their grade up, sadly it was not. There weren’t even that many assignments in the grade book because it was towards the beginning of the trimester, yet these students chose to not ponerse las pilas . 

The positive, however, is that we had an incredibly well-behaved group go on the field trip and I was able to trust them with some extra freedom. They enjoyed being able to walk around the neighborhood during our free time for the scavenger hunt and everyone showed up at the bus when they were supposed to. We had no incidents or complaints about student behavior from the restaurant/market. This is really important and ensures an opportunity to plan a trip like this in the future. 

On a side note, we had about 50 students attend the trip. A good amount of students chose not to go due to social anxiety, appointments, or various other reasons.

Planning and Logistics

There is a lot to keep in mind when planning a field trip. 

  Before you say anything to students about the trip:

• Decide where you will go

Reach out to the place to see if they can even accommodate a group of your class size

• What will the menu be?
• What will they charge?
• Can you all eat at once or will they eat in shifts? They may wish for you to attend at off-peak hours. We were able to reserve time with the restaurant from 10am-noon. 
• See if you can get funding through your district
• Partner with another teacher (ELL class or other Spanish class)
• Figure out what time you will go 
• Design your itinerary
• Will you need a sub that day?
• Remember to apply for the field trip if your school requires it
• Notify the Health Office once the field trip is approved
• Notify the Special Ed Department in the event of special needs
• How many chaperones will you need?
• Find your school’s field trip checklist/ protocols

Time to tell students:

• Use a Google Form survey to gauge interest and get food orders
• Send permission slips home with students
• Set your deadlines for permission slip turn-in, money turn-in, and grade-check
• Get the bus ordered (hopefully a school secretary can help with this)
• Send out an email to parents (don’t forget to request chaperones!)
• Scout out the location and figure out what you will have students look for in order to create a scavenger hunt worksheet
• Create a scavenger hunt worksheet
• Create a Google Doc List of who is going to attend and who has turned in forms and money
• Double-check with each student about the food order they are requesting and add it to your Google Doc. 
• Send the final food order to the restaurant you will be going to 
• Collect money from students
• Submit the money you collected from students to the school in order to get a check made out to the place you are going
• Send out a list to the attendance office of who is approved to be excused that day 
• Send reminders to parents and the chaperones that have confirmed

It’s a lot, I know. I swear, students have NO idea how much work we do behind the scenes in order to pull off cool opportunities for them! 🙂

One other logistical detail I should mention: I had some students turn in their permission slips past the deadline. I had already submitted the food orders but I decided to allow these students to attend anyway, they just had to purchase their own food once there on the day of the field trip. This worked fine as there is both a restaurant and a market where we went. So, there was enough going on at the establishment to entertain an extra guest or two. Every situation is different, so ensure you have a gauge of how many students a given venue can entertain well!

Field Trip Day

Okay, now all your hard work has paid off. Here we go! It’s Field Trip Day! Get ready to enjoy some tasty food and have some fun with your students! 

Don’t forget to…

• Print off your Google Doc List of students attending with their food orders to bring with you.
• If you are receiving funding from your school or a foundation, it will likely be in the form of a check. So, bring the check for the restaurant if you have not already sent it in the mail or paid online. 
• Bring enough copies of the scavenger hunt worksheet you created, and a few extras in case it is a rainy or windy day.
• Pick up a First Aid Kit from the Health Office.

As we waited to get on the bus, I checked with each student and reminded them of what they had ordered. I did this because when we arrived I didn’t want any confusion on what was ordered. We had pre-ordered food so I didn’t want someone to not remember what they ordered and grab something else, messing up the count. Restaurants feel a lot of stress to expediently serve everyone a hot, tasty meal. So sticking to the menu and gameplan are very important…not just for you and your class, but also for those working the event!

If you’re curious, our menu options we arranged were:

• chicken burrito y bebida
• 2 tacos de asada, arroz y frijoles, y bebida
• 2 tacos al pastor, arroz y frijoles, y bebida
• 1 taco al pastor, 1 taco de asada, arroz y frijoles, y bebida

We loaded the bus and did a headcount before leaving. Our first order of business upon arrival was the food, so we settled into the restaurant portion of the market to start things off. The staff were super great and brought out the meals in to-go boxes. They brought out each order one at a time so I would say, “Anyone who ordered a chicken burrito come get your food!” and so on. I am SO glad I reminded students of their order that morning because even despite the menu repetition, we still managed to have a mix-up. 

After eating, I passed out the scavenger hunt worksheets . We decided to have half the students and chaperones begin in the market and the other half begin in the neighborhood. It was important to us not to bombard either setting with a glut of students so that patrons could still shop at the market while we were there! We set a time that they would need to switch and set a time that everyone needed to meet back at the bus. 

Initially, I won’t lie, I was a bit worried students would balk at having to do a worksheet on a field trip. My colleague had the amazing idea to incentivize the completion of the worksheet, by doing a prize drawing at the end featuring gift cards to the market for those who complete it. GENIUS! Student participation shot way up, and the establishment we chose for the field trip further benefitted beyond simply buying food or paying a service fee. This worked like a charm and students went straight to work hunting for all the items they needed to check off. It was also super fun to do the prize drawing for the gift cards at the end of the trip! Students were so excited to go to the market and buy things. We gave away 6 $5 gift cards to spread out the love. Of course, if your funding is different or if you have a different dollar amount in mind, that is completely up to you. But for what it is worth, $5 still buys a pretty cool treat and my students thought it was worth all the effort! 

One of my favorite questions on the list was “How many mirrors are there?” for the market scavenger hunt because there were 159 mirrors (they sell mirrors, and they have quite a few for sale)! Let’s just say it kept students busy for a while! 

The scavenger hunt for the outside portion of the event included searching for specific murals and quotes that were stamped into the sidewalk. 

Here is a copy of the Scavenger Hunt I made. Of course, you will need to make your own based on the place you decide to go but this will at least give you an idea, or get you started. We ended up having quite a bit of free time after students completed the Scavenger Hunt because we didn’t need to leave until 1:15PM. Students found their own fun outside by playing at a nearby park. This was honestly my favorite memory of the trip because a group of 15 high school boys were all playing tag at the playground as if they were in elementary school. I love that they were able to feel transported back to another time in their life when maybe things were a little bit more carefree, and who doesn’t love a good classic game like tag? The innocent fun they were having was so beautiful and honestly I don’t think they would have felt as free to do so if some of the students who cause so much stress and distraction had been allowed to attend. 

Here is why it is so important to source some extra chaperones: during the free time other students went to the Michoacán Ice Cream Shop and a nearby bakery. While yet other students stayed in the restaurant area chatting with their friends over dessert. I simply could not have done this alone! I was floored by the maturity my students showed and I think they relished the freedom the trip provided during this leftover time. 

After a while, the boys at the playground found a soccer ball and headed over across the street to an empty soccer field for a quick pick-up match of the beautiful game. This was so fun to watch and I feel like they had even more fun by being able to play!

Post Field Trip

Afterward, a good amount of students regretted their choice to not attend when they saw things on social media about how much fun it was. This should create a positive incentive for class participation and prioritization of turning in work the whole year long next year, due to it being such a thoroughly positive experience for my students!

The next day, I created a slideshow of the murals we saw and spent some time in class having students reflect on the symbolism in the murals. This was nice because even students who didn’t attend were able to reflect on the mural’s connection to our César Chávez y Dolores Huerta unit . I also included some photos of students hanging out on the trip to reinforce the good memories we made on the trip.

Don’t forget to share photos of the trip with anyone who helped with funding the trip. It helps them see the educational goals and general good they have helped accomplish. I am sure your school’s social media team would love to hear about it as well! My superintendent even requested more info from me so he could share about our trip at the school board meeting. 

What Students Said About the Field Trip

Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. My students had a blast! Many of them had already been to Burrito Mercado, but going with friends and having free time was a lot of fun for them and a new experience for them even in a familiar venue. Here’s what some of my students said: 

“I thought the trip went very well with what we’re learning from whether what we eat, buy, and how authentic the place is from inside and out. You can see authentic items like cups, mirrors, plates and other things that are traditionally for us Latinos and can be seen in our households.”

“I thought the trip was a great way to connect to other friends. We talked about how we would always go to el Burrito Mercado as kids and the memories we had going there.” 

“I really liked the field trip because I felt belonging around that area where I used to spend most of my time as a child because I had an aunt nearby who used to babysit me. Every day we would pass by all those murals and especially around El Burrito. I liked the trip because I got to learn more backstory on the significance of the art and the message and how they correlated to our Latino community. I felt connected while learning about all of the artwork and buildings in the area, not just El Burrito. It was nice to revisit that and analyze the deeper meaning that is able to signify and highlight our values as a community because Cesár Chávez Street is unique and it’s like a home to us and I think it’s really important to commemorate that topic and is a relevant and important highlight for this unit that we studied in heritage Spanish.” -Jésus

Other Field Trip Ideas

If you don’t have a nearby market in your area, you might want to consider restaurants, museums, cultural dance performances, farm/ranch, pottery making, college visits, concerts, and soccer stadiums. What other field trip ideas do you have? Comment below!

Pin for later!

Share this post:

• Read more about: Engaging Lessons , Field Trip

You might also like...

A Bad Bunny Valentine’s Day Lesson Plan for Spanish Class

22 Freezer Meals for Busy Teachers

How to Play the “Never Have I Ever” Game in Spanish Class- Present Perfect Tense Practice

Looking for something.

• Heritage Spanish Class Curriculum

Get FREE resources for your Heritage Classroom!

Browse the blog.

• Back to school
• Book Reviews
• Celebrations
• Class Parties
• Classroom Decorations
• Classroom Management
• Digital activities for Spanish class
• Distance Learning
• Engaging Lessons
• Flipped Grammar Lessons
• For Spanish Teachers
• Freezer Meals
• FVR / Reading
• FVR Library
• Heritage Speaker Curriculum
• Icebreakers
• Identity work
• Low Prep Lessons
• Movie Review
• Spanish for Heritage Speakers
• Start a Classroom Library for Heritage Speakers
• Teaching Strategies for Heritage Spanish Class
• Uncategorized
• Writers Workshop

Hey there, I'm Courtney!

Hey there, I’m Courtney! A Spanish teacher who creates resources that engage & empower heritage Spanish-speaking students, saving you time and energy!

• Heritage Spanish Club
• Consultation Call
• Cart & Checkout

Virtual Field Trips to Spain for Kids

Getting to know different cultures can be the trickiest part of language learning. It’s expensive to travel, difficult to do so with kids, and (as I write this in May 2020) currently prohibited. Given the extent that kids are doing things online these days (virtually everything), it’s not a bad way to learn about Spanish speaking countries, too. To narrow down the overwhelming amounts of information available online, I’ve focused solely on one country -here are a few virtual field trips to Spain for kids.

Before getting started, have your kids learn some basic facts and geography by watching the following short, kid-friendly introductory videos to Spain.

Without further ado, the following virtual field trips to Spain for kids are geared towards Spanish language learners in elementary school -though you’ll find a few that are entertaining for all ages.

Museo del Prado

El Prado is Spain’s national art museum. They offer virtual visits on their website and Instagram account. But the fun part are their educational, art-centric online activities that are made just for kids.

Juegos Sonoros en Casa

Updated every Thursday in May, Juegos Sonoros en Casa pairs a work of art with a related activity to complete at home.

Juego Para Familias

In this massive scavenger hunt , kids download illustrated maps of the museum and are challenged to find a number of objects. Each room of the museum has its own map, list of objects to find, and answer key.

Both programs are great for all ages, but the instructions are in Spanish only. 

Casa Museo del Ratón Pérez

Ratoncito Pérez is the Hispanic version of the tooth fairy and Casa Museo del Ratón Pérez is a small museum dedicated to the tiny mouse. It’s primarily based on a story written by Luis Coloma, which stated that Ratoncito Perez lived in that very same building in Madrid. 

Coloma wrote the story for King Alfonso XIII, who was eight years old at the time and about to lose a tooth. It follows King Buby (the nickname for the king) as he catches Ratoncito Pérez while trying to exchange his tooth for a gift. King Buby then proceeds to accompany Ratón Pérez for the rest of the night.

While the museum’s website is pretty simple, you can take a quick tour of the museum by watching the YouTube video below.

Then watch an animated version of Coloma’s story.

Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes

Kids can take a virtual tour of Miguel de Cervantes’ birthplace. Cervantes is the author of Don Quixote -arguably the most famous Spanish book of all time.

The house is located in Alcalá de Henares (about 20 miles from Madrid) and decorated to look as it did in Cervantes’ time.

I’ve included it on this list, not because it’s geared towards kids. It’s not. But being able to snoop in a house that’s not yours, that’s decorated for its time period, and that distantly involves an oddball character like Don Quixote -is pretty interesting regardless of age.

The website and virtual tour are available in both English and Spanish.

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Barcelona’s premier art museum offers a great selection of art-themed games , memory , coloring pages , puzzles , and virtual tours . The website and activities are available in both English and Spanish. 

For the youngest soccer fans, a virtual trip to Spain wouldn’t be complete without mentioning it’s two most prominent teams, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid . And, because I’m not about to get in the middle of which team is better, I’m going to talk about both. 

Even the youngest soccer fan can get lost on either website browsing player stats, game clips, and breaking news. Kids can check out Real Madrid’s Kid Zone and a 3D model of Santiago Bernabeú stadium seen from above. 

Meanwhile, Barça fans can enjoy some kid-friendly activities and games . As part of their #culersathome movement, kids can design a t-shirt , make Barça themed pizza , play who’s who , have ‘ electricity races’ , and more from the comfort of their homes. FYI, Barça fans are called culers .

Both teams offer their websites and activities in English and Spanish.

Casa Batlló

Casa Batlló is a house in Barcelona designed by famous architect, Antoni Gaudí.

Their website offers an all-access virtual tour , a 360 degree video experience , and a selection of Gaudí inspired arts and crafts for kids to complete at home -with instructions available in English.

360 Degree Tours

360 degree tours are a great way for kids to (virtually) manipulate their surroundings, explore at their own pace, and be the boss of their own adventure.

Google Arts & Culture

Google Arts & Culture has an overwhelming number of virtual tours for most any country, including Spain. In addition to 360 degree tours, it also has online exhibits, museum tours, cooking videos, and much, much more. 

Another great option for 360 degree city tours is Airpano . They offer only a few Spanish cities, so the choices are less overwhelming. But you can get great aerial views of major cities like Madrid and Barcelona.

Suggested Places to Visit

If the mere quantity of places to see on Airpano and Google Arts & Culture seems like too much, here is a smaller list of my personal favorites.

• Alhambra : A large palace and fortress, located in Granada, which is in the South of Spain. You can take a virtual tour here or here .
• Anything by Gaudí : I mentioned Casa Batlló earlier, but you’ll also want to check out Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia and Park Güell for more colorful, intricate, and interesting designs.
• Alcázar de Segovia : It’s a castle ! And, yes, there are castles all over Spain, but this is one of my favorites. Kids can take the virtual tour and imagine what it might have been like to live there.
• Sevilla’s Plaza de España : Nearly every major city in Spain has a Plaza de España, but none of them live up to Sevilla’s. Plus, several movies have been filmed here, including Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones .
• Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences : Because it literally looks like the future. It has also been a shooting location for Tomorrowland , Doctor Who , and Westworld .

Virtual Field Trips to Spain: At Home Activities

Every country on this planet has a rich culture with plenty of interesting sights, museums, and landmarks. Spain is no exception. Thankfully, the internet is here for the win with plenty of virtual field trips to Spain for kids.

If you would like to incorporate additional activities into your kids’ or students’ Spanish learning adventures, you (or your kids) can create a scavenger hunt, checklist, or bingo game card of places in Spain you’d like to visit. The beauty of virtual field trips are that you (or your child) get to be the boss!

¡Buen viaje!

If you enjoyed my virtual field trips to Spain for kids and want to continue learning about Spanish culture check out, How to Make Tortilla de Patatas With Your Kids . 

Share this:.

You May Also Like

Virtual Field Trips to Peru

Take a Hispanic Virtual Field Trip Around the World!

Black History Month Virtual Field Trips for Spanish Class

One comment.

This “kid” enjoyed this post!

Making educational experiences better for everyone.

Immersive learning for 25 languages

Marketplace for millions of educator-created resources

Fast, easy, reliable language certification

Fun educational games for kids

Comprehensive K-12 personalized learning

Trusted tutors for 300+ subjects

35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans

Adaptive learning for English vocabulary

School Field Trips at California's Great America

Save When You Buy Tickets Online for Groups 15-99

Field Trips

A Trip Nobody Wants to Miss

Take an amazing setting. Add terrific food choices, toss in coasters and other entertainment options. That’s one can’t-miss field trip. California’s Great America is Northern California’s premier amusement park bursting with attractions and entertainment for all groups.

Educational Field Trips

When you bring students to California’s Great America, you don’t just give them a day away from school. You give them an educational field trip––designed by leading educators and subject-matter experts–– that transforms the park into an interactive, state-of-the-art classroom. 

General Field Trips

California’s Great America is a safe, clean, and incredibly fun place for students to explore. With mind-blowing rides, entertainment and food options, your students will have a day jam-packed with thrills.

End-of-Year Celebrations

California’s Great America provides the perfect place to celebrate the end of the year for your students! 

With hair-raising coasters and amazing attractions – this will be the trip your students will be talking about long after it’s over.

Meal and Drink Options

Catered Meal

California's Great America offers delicious meals created with students in mind. This is a great way for your group to eat together in our beautiful County Fair Picnic Grove. All of our all-you-can-eat student meal selections include potato chips, cookies and unlimited fountain beverages.

All-Day Drinks

All day long, guests just show their wristbands where Coca‑Cola® beverages are sold to get their fill of ice‑cold refreshment!

All-Day Dining

With this meal plan your students can get an entrée and a side every 90 minutes, all day long at participating park locations. Upgrade to Premium All-Day Dining and get All-Day Drinks and a snack.

Single Meal Deal 

This is a meal voucher that includes an entrée, side and a drink and is valid at any of our participating in park locations.

If you’re looking to make your day extra special or to bring a group of over 100, our team can help plan a group outing that fits your needs.

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Easy Classroom Set Up With our Free Email Course!

Our Favorite Second Grade Field Trips (Virtual and In-Person, Too!)

Don’t make fuss, just get on the bus!

With their growing independence, ability to think logically, and longer attention span, second graders are a real joy to teach. Those characteristics also make for some great field trips. So if you’re thinking about learning experiences for your second graders, you’ll want to check out our list of best second grade field trips.

Not all of these trips will be possible everywhere, but keep in mind any local treasures that are unique to your area. And when you can’t manage a trip—for whatever reason—try our virtual second grade field trips below.

In-Person Second Grade Field Trips

1. a nature center.

A nature center is the perfect place for kids to learn about local plant and wildlife, as well as some beginning geology (land and water) concepts. Activities vary by location but might include a nature hike or live animal presentation.

2. The Children’s Theater

Second graders are a great age for a live theater experience. Children’s theaters generally have offerings based on age-appropriateness. Many plays are based on classic children’s literature, so you can read the book aloud first and then discuss the similarities/differences after!

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

3. The Hospital

Community helpers are an important part of the second grade curriculum. If they’ve already been to the fire and police station, a tour of a hospital (when it’s safe to do so) might be an option for more mature learners who want an up-close look at the work of doctors.

Going to the zoo provides students with the chance to observe animal behaviors and learn about wildlife conservation. Most of them,  like the San Diego Zoo , have educational programs, including keeper talks and up-close animal encounters.

5. A Factory

Second graders are curious about how things work, so a trip to a factory is likely to be of high interest to them. Cars, chocolates, textiles … the possibilities are endless!

6. An IMAX Theater

This isn’t any old movie theater, and you won’t be taking them to see Pixar’s latest release. But the IMAX experience is something else, and—given educational content like a nature documentary—something second graders should experience.

7. The Children’s Museum

Steer your second graders away from any areas that might seem too “babyish” for them. Instead, point them to cultural and historical exhibits, as well as any available Makerspace activities.

8. The Aquarium

If you’re not lucky enough to have a zoo close by, an aquarium is another good choice. Students will get a window into life under the sea, and lots of aquariums have touch pools for the ultimate in hands-on learning.

9. A Planetarium

Kids love to look at the moon and stars. A visit to a planetarium is the perfect introduction to the solar system. Second graders can take in a show and try to identify constellations.

10. A Fish Hatchery

A trip to the fish hatchery is a great way to learn about the life cycle of a fish, fish anatomy, and water quality. Plus, the kids will enjoy the underwater viewing windows and the opportunity to feed the young fish that are features of most hatcheries.

Virtual Second Grade Field Trips

1. an egg farm.

We love these  virtual egg farm field trips  from the American Egg Board. Make sure you catch the elementary-friendly versions of Hertzfeld Poultry and Creighton Brothers Farms.

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6wbfVWVk8Q[/embedyt]

Most zoos have live webcams in some of their most popular exhibits, such as the  Panda Cam at Zoo Atlanta . However, some zoos offer a more in-depth look. You’ll definitely want to check out the  San Diego Zoo .

3. The Aquarium

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8__n13tKM[/embedyt]

It’s a similar story with aquariums. You have your pick of live webcams, but our favorites are the  Georgia Aquarium’s Ocean Voyager webcam  (wait for the whale shark!) and the  “jellycam” at Monterey Bay Aquarium  (so soothing). And definitely check out  The Maritime Aquarium  where you can register for their virtual programs (try Shark Safari!).

4. Boston Children’s Museum

“Walk” through all three floors of the Boston Children’s Museum on this  virtual tour . Be sure to direct your students to the Japanese House.

5. A Planetarium

Through  Stellarium Web , kids can explore over 60,000 stars, locate planets, and watch sunrises and solar eclipses. If you enter your location, you can see all the constellations that are visible in the night sky in your corner of the world.

What are your favorite second grade field trips? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out the Best Field Trip Ideas for Every Age and Interest (Virtual Options Too!)

You Might Also Like

260+ Field Trip Ideas for Grades Pre-K Through 12 (In-Person and Virtual)

Get out of the classroom and explore the world! Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Hart County Tourism announces field trip assistance program

HART COUNTY, Ky. (WBKO) - Hart County Tourism has announced its field trip assistance program. The program is intended to, “assist your field trip to these Hart County attractions with educational programs” according to their Facebook page.

The attractions mentioned are:

• Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo, west of Horse Cave
• Dennison’s Roadside Market, on South Jackson Highway south of Uno
• Hidden River Cave/American Cave Museum, in Horse Cave
• Dutch Country Safari Park, on L and N Turnpike Road near Rowletts

With the program, teachers will be able to plan their 2024-25 academic year field trips at a reduced cost. The program will provide a reimbursement of $5 for every student on a field trip to one of the four attractions listed.

Along with the program, Hart County Tourism is also currently running its annual “Teacher Days” until July 27.

Kentucky public school teachers are given free admission with a valid teacher ID.

Hart County Tourism says the applications for the program open on Aug. 1.

Educators can visit Hart County Tourism’s website to apply or for more information on the Field Trip Assistance Program .

Copyright 2024 WBKO. All rights reserved.

Woman dead after DUI crash in Monroe County

Trump picks Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a once-fierce critic turned loyal ally, as his GOP running mate

Off duty Hardin County deputy, wife killed in motorcycle crash

3 arrested in Glasgow following alleged forgery

One person transported to AirEvac after vehicle accident in Logan County

Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment

Heat index pushing over 100°

‘The Lodge at Boyce’ opens in Alvaton

Latest news.

Edmonton men facing charges after crashing involving Glasgow PD cruiser

Increased police presence near St. Joseph School due to training

New Barren County Schools superintendent excited to bring students to the forefront of the community

Sen. Rand Paul comments on assassination attempt against former President Trump

Trial date set for Tompkinsville woman charged with murder of Uber driver in Texas

Sen. Rand Paul comments on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump

How copyright laws affects local businesses

Teen on beach field trip dies in possible rip current

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. ( WECT /Gray News) - A teenager drowned while on a field trip on Sunday.

According to Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith, three teenagers got caught in a suspected rip current Sunday afternoon.

Two of the three were saved in time, but one died.

Smith said the teenagers were on a chaperoned field trip and not from the area.

The identity of the deceased victim has not been released.

Copyright 2024 WECT via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Trump picks Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a once-fierce critic turned loyal ally, as his GOP running mate

Horry County inmate dies at hospital after ‘not feeling well’, coroner says

Winning lottery ticket worth $645,000 sold in Myrtle Beach

‘He was gone’: Crews searching for man who jumped from Georgetown County bridge after car crash

2 hurt in Myrtle Beach-area crash

FIRST ALERT: Heat Advisory continues Tuesday ahead of late week storms

Power restored after storms rolled through Grand Strand, Pee Dee

Judge approves confidential settlement in lawsuit over deadly shooting at Horry County bar

Latest news.

K-9 reunites child found walking alone on road with his family

Report: Grand Strand beachgoers ran in fear after woman drove car onto beach

Amazon Prime Day deals are here. Should you take advantage of them?

Jack Black ends Tenacious D tour after bandmate’s Trump shooting comment

Kennedy and West third-party ballot drives are pushed by secretive groups and Republican donors

Memorial service scheduled for Florence woman killed in dog attack

Darlington County man accused of shooting victim in the chest

Republican convention to focus on immigration a day after a bandaged Trump makes entrance

News from the Columbia Climate School

From ‘Asthma Alley’ to Green Spaces: A Field Trip with South Bronx Unite

Conor O’Brien

Olga Rukovets

The South Bronx is a coastal community without a waterfront. Severed from the shore, two South Bronx neighborhoods—Mott Haven and Port Morris—are saturated with waste facilities, power plants and warehouses, and crisscrossed with highways that carry diesel trucks throughout the community. Local residents experience significantly more asthma hospitalizations that elsewhere in New York City, and children have some of the highest asthma incidence rates in the country.

In the South Bronx, aka Asthma Alley , the signs of environmental racism are impossible to ignore. The story, however, doesn’t have to end there. Organizations like South Bronx Unite seek to build community-led access to the waterfront and green spaces to help abate such persistent health issues.

This past June, South Bronx Unite led the Columbia M.P.A in Environmental Science and Policy ( MPA-ESP ) cohort around their neighborhood. The MPA-ESP program seeks to combat environmental inequity through science-led policy and empathy-driven advocacy. Through Steven Chillrud ’s class on environmental chemistry and the health implications of air pollution—Chillrud is a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School—this group of students observed the real-life relevance of the program’s stated goals.

While the class stood along the banks of the Harlem River, South Bronx executive director Arif Ullah described how environmental racism plays out in his community. For one, the South Bronx handles almost a third of all waste generated in New York City, despite containing only 6.5% of the city’s population, and experiences hundreds of diesel trucks driving through their community on a daily basis. “You don’t see that in wealthy communities,” said Ullah. “You see that in poor communities.”

Leslie Vasquez, clean air project organizer at South Bronx Unite, told the ESP cohort about the necessity of water and garden access as a tonic for the continuing harm levied against her community.

South Bronx Unite came from a community in pursuit of self-determination in the face of decades of city-sanctioned pollution. In 2013, South Bronx Unite filed a lawsuit against the city for their proposed, and taxpayer-subsidized, relocation of FreshDirect to the Harlem River Yards, further exacerbating existing health issues in the community. South Bronx Unite lost that case.

“We came together and we fought against…pollution,” Vasquez told the students, but “they disregarded us.” Access to clean air improves health, which improves productivity, which improves life outcomes, opined Ullah. “We lost that battle but that doesn’t mean it’s over,” Vasquez added.

Vasquez talked about 60,000 community members in the South Bronx, many of whom have health problems that are likely linked to the high levels of PM 2.5 from the diesel truck fleets , the noxious vapors from waste facilities and the persistent noise pollution along the highways. We see homes pushed up against industrial sites and, as Ullah stated, the community is “surrounded by pollution,” she said. South Bronx Unite is urging government and industrial companies alike to do better by their community. Through air quality monitoring, the organization is able to see the difference between areas near green spaces and by power plants, which furnishes them with the data required to advocate for their own health and well-being.

The highways that cut through the South Bronx are not there by happenstance, Vasquez told the Columbia students. “These highways follow Robert Moses’ plans…dividing our communities,” she said. The South Bronx “is still experiencing the product of those projects today.” Grassroots organizations, like South Bronx Unite, seek to remedy these past wrongs.

Through community-led implementation of a waterfront plan and the expansion of green spaces in city-owned lots, South Bronx Unite is trying to counteract what Ullah termed the “ripple effects” of generations of pollution and improve the quality of life across the community.

Columbia’s MPA-ESP program melds science with practical policy application. Invigorated by South Bronx Unite’s advocacy against air pollution and environmental injustice, our students hope to inspire real change and create a healthier, more equitable future.

Related Posts

A Collaborative Approach To Comprehending Glacial Retreat

Amid a Sweltering Summer, a New Study Finds Street Trees Thrive in NYC

Beryl Sets off Alarm Bells Among Hurricane Experts

Recent record-breaking heat waves have affected communities across the world. The Extreme Heat Workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners to advance the state of knowledge, identify community needs, and develop a framework for evaluating risks with a focus on climate justice. Register by June 15

Get the Columbia Climate School Newsletter

Roanoke middle schoolers empowered through “Community Builders” program

R OANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - In Roanoke City Public Schools , a new initiative is illuminating the lives of middle school students with hope, inspiration, and a pathway to a brighter future.

The Community Builders program isn’t just about filling summer days; it’s about filling hearts and minds with possibilities.

For around 50 8th graders, this summer has been transformative. Every day of the week brings something new, imparting important lessons about their community and their role in it. It’s something Makenzi Spradling says has her thinking about her future.

“I’m going to pay more attention to school, take it seriously,” said Spradling. “And like I learned, when I get older, it’s not going to be like a game. I can’t just joke around forever, and I’m going to grow up.”

Introduced by Delegate Sam Rasoul (D) in the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Glenn Youngkin, the program’s main goal is to deter youth gun violence and gang activity.

“They stay safe by staying connected,” said RCPS Superintendent Verletta White. “And when they’re connected to those things that are productive, connected to those things that are constructive... then they are less likely to engage in problematic behaviors or even dangerous behaviors.”

Program Site Leader Mikayla McMullen has observed the students becoming more engaged.

“They want to come to school, they want to be involved, they want to go on the trips, they want to learn more about what is out there,” explained McMullen.

Field trips to places like the police academy, fire department, and courthouse have opened doors to new possibilities.

“When I get older, I would love to be a children’s lawyer, like a family lawyer to help kids get out of toxic homes out of toxic environments and put them in a home where they feel loved. And they feel like they matter,” said Spradling.

Community Builders doesn’t end with summer as they will continue to meet throughout the school year.

“We are giving them a sense that they belong in Roanoke City,” added McMullen.

If you know someone who would benefit from this program, you can refer them to be part of it next summer.

to submit an obituary

For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at [email protected] or fax at 610-371-5193.

Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to [email protected] .

In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased's care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email.

All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full.

Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published.

Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing.

Local News | Reading Science Center receives $60,000 grant…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Things to Do
• Classifieds
• Special Sections

Breaking News

Local news | reading store owner arrested on drug-trafficking charges, subscriber only, local news | reading science center receives $60,000 grant from neag foundation, the funds will subsidized the center’s field trip program for berks county schools..

The nonprofit center, 645 Penn St., features interactive science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, exhibits and provides hands-on learning for families and schools.

The grant will significantly increase access to schools throughout Berks County by enabling the center to provide a $10 discount per student, starting in September, the center said in a release.

“The Reading Science Center is deeply grateful to the Neag Foundation for this expansive support to make our field trips affordable to schools countywide,” said Ralia Vardaxis, the center’s executive director. “This gift honors the memory of both Ray and Carol Neag in a meaningful way, as their life’s work was spent advancing health and science in our community.”

The center’s Ignite and Excite Field Trip Program has been a cornerstone of the center’s educational offerings since March 2022, the release said. Over the past two years, the program has provided immersive and interactive science experiences to thousands of students, enhancing critical skills and fostering a love of science.

The grant is expected to impact more than 6,000 students through trips scheduled in the 2024-25 school year.

Funds will be used exclusively to subsidize the cost of field trips so more schools can take advantage of the opportunity for students to experience scientific exploration and discovery.

Field trips to the center offer integrated science activities designed to engage students in exciting ways, the release said.

Students work with their own sets of materials to experience true hands-on, inquiry-based investigations led by trained educators, the statement said. Knowledgeable docents also guide students in exploring more than 50 interactive exhibits in the 7,000 square-foot science museum.

To learn more or schedule a class field trip, visit readingsciencecenter.org/field-trips .

The center is open to the public Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More in Local News

Local News | Jay Worrall appointed board chairman of Feeding Pennsylvania

Local News | Daily docket: July 16, 2024

Business | Dieffenbach’s Snacks celebrates 60th anniversary, launches new products

Business | Business Weekly Agenda for July 16