I’m a huge fan of Virtual Field Trips. They give my students the opportunity to discover places they might never have the chance to visit in real life, are cheap and are an excellent way to build bridges between cultures.
However, you don’t want them to become something students just watch passively. So how to make the most of Virtual Field Trips in your French class and create/use fun and engaging activities to enhance this powerful resource? That definitely got me thinking. In real life, what would I do with my students if we were playing tourist, and can I apply it in my classroom?
Don’t forget your passport for your Virtual Field Trips
A crucial item for any traveler, the passport is also full of memories with its colorful visas and stamps. I love going through its pages and feeling the nostalgy of my past trips.
I created a passport mini booklet for my students to keep track of the French Virtual Field Trips we went on and gather information about them. For each page that is completed add a stamp! Click here to download the passport
Figure out the itinerary of your Virtual Field Trips
Before going anywhere, I would sit down with my class and ask them how to get to the place we are going to explore. Most of the French Virtual Field Trips I created are about Paris or its suburb. A fun activity would be to give my students a map of the Parisian subway and have them try to figure our itinerary. Each group could pretend to start its trip from a different location on the map.
Ex: How do you get to Notre-Dame de Paris from le Sacré Cœur?
Create postcards and take selfies on your Virtual Field Trips
The most touristic activity is of course to write postcards. Since you’re actually not going on a real trip, and can’t buy postcards, why don’t you ask your students to create them? Have them research pictures, print them and do some collages.
If they are into it, you can have them look up French stamps as well. Of course, they will have to add a few lines to describe what their field trip was about.
Teens are experts in taking selfies! A fun activity to do would be to make a wall of selfies taken in the different sites virtually visited. And if you really want to make your students happy, push it a little further and ask them to produce tic toc videos. I have no clue how tic toc works, so you’re on your own with that one
Write a review of the virtual fieldtrip
Over the last decade writing reviews has became a daily habit while traveling. From TripAdvisor to Yelp, tourists are asked to give their opinion about what they ate, visited or where they stayed.
It is a good exercise for students, allowing them to share their likes and dislikes about places they virtually went to. You can have the kids read what they wrote to the rest of the classroom and debate as well. Find the FREE Write a Review Activity here!
There are many other activities you can do with your French class to make the most of virtual field trips. Have you thought about doing an award ceremony (most beautiful building, coolest name, craziest garden, etc)? My advice is: try some of these entertaining and educational activities and see what makes your student feel all of the excitement!