School trips are the highlight of the year for students, and if it happens to be their first, it’s a huge checkpoint on the road to independence.
Of course, amongst all the excitement of exploring a new place, there can be a lot of time spent travelling and on the bus getting from place to place. This can be a little dull sometimes, particularly in big groups, but it doesn’t have to be.
More than just seeing new places, school trips are about building confidence and developing interpersonal skills. You can take the opportunity to build these connections on the bus in ways that are fun and engaging for your students. We’ve put together some helpful ideas for ways to keep your class entertained during some of those lengthy transit times.
When trying to come up with ways to keep a big class entertained, pulling from your surroundings is a simple way to get everyone involved. Take on an impromptu tour guide role and give your class a run-down of any notable landmarks you may be passing or even start a bus-wide game of I-spy. Either way, there are plenty opportunities for entertainment just outside the window.
The school trip bus chant is a time honoured tradition that goes back decades. Tuneless at worse and cheesy at best, there’s no greater way to bond a group of young people than in the shared humiliation of a student-teacher singalong. Some of the classics include ‘Wheels on The Bus’ for the literalists among us, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and, of course, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (best left for the professionals). Popular additions to playlists in recent years have been songs from Frozen and The Greatest Showman. ‘This Is Me’ was even belted out at the airport by one of our groups waiting for their journey home! Get your phone camera out and you could have an entire album of class covers by the time you get home!
If you want to lean further into your coursework objectives, time spent on the bus could be a great time to do some learning. On the way back from an excursion you could do a pop quiz to help students reflect on what they experienced that day. WST offer free quizzes for our Christmas market and northern Europe destinations which can be completed on the coach journey.
WARNING: You may have to prepare some prizes to help drum up competitive spirit at the end of a long day!
There are so many fun interactive games that you can play to keep students engaged on long journeys. At WST we know our school tours inside and out, which is why when it comes to activities, we’ve got you covered. We've created a handy little travel pack to help boost morale from place to place. While away the hours with funky word quizzes and an exciting game of car colour bingo.