Immerse Your Students in the Language with Virtual Field trips

 

Today I am going to share one of my favorite ways to immerse students in language and culture by going on virtual field trips without leaving the classroom! I make it a very authentic travel experience for the students by issuing them passports, passport stamps, boarding passes, itineraries, tickets and passes to attractions, postcards and travel journals.  I am including 3 FREEBIES below, so be sure to keep reading so that you don't miss them! If you are interested in gaining access to my Free Resource Library of language lessons 

Click: Free Resource Library for foreign language teachers

How to Create a Virtual Field Trip

Whether you are a language teacher, a social studies teacher or a grade-level teacher, virtual field trips can fit beautifully into many different types of curriculums.  Thanks to some incredible technology today, we are able to transport our students pretty much anywhere on the globe.  Maybe you are reading a book about México and you would like to take your students there even if it is only for a few short minutes, tools such as Google Earth, Google Expeditions, Street View and even YouTube have the ability to get you there! Google Earth is an app that you can download on to any device.  I love projecting it on to my classroom whiteboard and sharing the voyage with my students that way.

Involving the Students in the Travel Process

Students will get excited about the adventure when you provide them with an actual passport and a stamp that represents the destination.  I give my students maps, travel plans, boarding passes, visitor necklaces and vocabulary postcards.  These are steps to take before the actual trip.  Following the trip, have the students fill out a travel journal page.  My students loved virtual field trips so much that I actually offered a Summer Spanish Camp called Virtual Vacation Camp.  This is an all-comprehensive travel program that transports students to eight different Spanish speaking countries.  It could also be adapted to use as an extra-curricular club or elective or as 8 individual virtual field trips that you take throughout the year.  Click below to check out this amazing Virtual Field Trip curriculum!

What is included in the Multilingual at Heart Virtual Field Trip Curriculum?

Teacher guides, student itineraries, student ready-made printable materials such as; passports, boarding passes, attraction tickets & passes, ready-made virtual field trips with interactive videos, virtual excursions, tourist attraction visits, lessons, story-telling and games, as well as crafts and templates are all included!

Planning A Virtual Field Trip for your students

If you are a language teacher, of course you want to plan trips to places where the language is spoken.  If you are a classroom teacher, consider what you are teaching in your social studies curriculum or what book you are reading in your language arts program and travel with your students to take a closer look.  Enter street views of actual cities or destinations mentioned in your book or unit of study and explore! 

Integrating Writing into the Virtual Field Trip

My favorite way to get students writing during and after a virtual field trip is through the use of a travel journal. I have included 3 FREEBIES here for you to get you started with a FREE Travel Journal for your next Virtual Field Trip!  Choose from the English, Spanish or French FREE versions below!

 

Travel Writing Activities for your Students

Personalize the cover of the travel journal with an actual photograph of your student.  I have a travel bulletin board in my classroom and a globe, so I'll often use that as a background.  It's also fun to take a photo outdoors with something that represents travel.

Create some hype about traveling to get the students really engaged in the lesson.  Have the students fill out a passport in the beginning of the year.  The FREEBIES include a free passport page.  If you want your students to have an actual passport that you can add stamps to, you can download my Virtual Field Trip Student Passport Templates ~ English & Spanish.

  

 

Going back to the travel journal...in the freebie you can choose from three different formats for your journal writing.  A postcard style, a shorter version with space for a drawing or a simple journal writing page.

If you are anything like me and you love to travel as much as I do, these adventurous lessons will bring you a ton of joy!  Check out all of my Virtual Travel Resources HERE.

Make every moment in the classroom count! My motto as Multilingual at Heart is always teach from the heart, so naturally I love this quote below!

Thanks so much for reading this post to the end!