Take an action-packed field trip to an 826michigan writing center and build your students’ enthusiasm for writing, or let us bring a field trip to your classroom with our roadshows!
We offer a variety of energy-filled field trip options, focused on both independent and collaborative writing. Students get to experience the power of sharing ideas and developing those ideas into a full-length story!
What happens on an 826michigan field trip or in a roadshow?
Our field trips and roadshows are provided at no cost to schools or teachers. Students write in large groups, small groups, and individually, and are supported by a team of trained 826michigan volunteers. You can choose from a variety of fun, interactive programs to suit the needs and interests of your students. Examples include:
PJ Day – 1st Grade Field Trip
The students arrive (in their pajamas, if possible) and learn that our grumpy editor, Dr. Blotch, needs help falling asleep. Students work collectively with a storyteller and a typist to draft a bedtime story for Dr. Blotch, building imaginative characters, setting, and conflict into the tale. At the end of the field trip, the story is read to Dr. Blotch, who finds it remarkable in every way.
Length of time: 70 minutes (with a stretch break!)
Storytelling & Bookmaking – 2nd Grade Field Trip
Students come into our writing lab and are greeted by a very relieved 826michigan facilitator: Dr. Blotch, our grumpy editor-in-chief, has forced all of 826michigan staff to become master knitters, so we’re behind on our story deadlines! Though we’re hoping our field trip students might distract Dr. Blotch, she soon interrupts to remind the class that we owe her a story in ONE HOUR! Oh dear! Can the students help the team write a fantastic story, one that will please the un-please-able Dr. Blotch?!
Length of time: 70 minutes (with a stretch break!)
New Monuments – 3rd or 4th Grade Field Trip
Across the country, we’re seeing a shift in our national understanding of who deserves to be honored with a monument. In this field trip, students will explore what a monument is and can be, dreaming up new possibilities for local ways to honor heroes and specialties, from the playful (a Coney Dog Monument in Detroit) to the serious (an Elijah McCoy Monument in Ypsilanti). We’ll envision these new possibilities, and then write about why we think these monuments should be built.
Length of time: 90 minutes (with a break)
Choose Your Own Adventure – 4th or 5th Grade Field Trip
Students begin writing an adventure story together in the second-person point of view, but when the protagonist must make a decision, the students split in half to continue the story down two separate paths. Students continue working on the story with their new groups, supported by 826michigan volunteers. Each group then splits again at the next crossroads. Each of the four groups write two final choices for the protagonist. As a follow-up activity in your classroom, students can compose their own original endings to the story!
Length of time: 90 minutes (with a break)
