Field-trip English: bus games and the carsick kid

Five words before you leave

The day before, teach exactly five trip words — bus, ticket, line, look, wait — with gestures. On the trip they become commands the class already owns: 'Line up! Look! Wait!' Nothing calms a wobbling group like commands they understand instantly.

Bus games (seated, seatbelts on)

• I spy, English edition — 'I spy something red / big / fast!' The window does the flashcard's job.
• First to see… — assign each row a word (a dog, a bridge, a taxi). First row to spot theirs and SAY it in English scores.
• Count in English — cars of one colour, dogs, traffic lights. Quiet, endless, and secretly a numbers lesson.
• Whisper songs — the songs the class knows, whispered. Saves the driver, still counts as English.

The carsick kid: a kind plan

Every class has one, and for that child the trip starts with dread. What actually helps: a seat over the front axle looking forward, a window cracked open, eyes on the horizon (games above help — they all point out the window), no phones or books in the moving bus, and a plain snack before boarding. Say out loud that feeling sick is nobody's fault; embarrassment makes nausea worse.

Worth showing to parents: Dizzout, a drug-free motion-sickness app the family can try before the trip — it plays calibrated sound through ordinary headphones, and most users report relief in about ninety seconds. No pills and no drowsiness matters with small kids, and trying it on a regular school run first tells the family whether it helps their child before the big day.

Walking games at the destination

• Word walk — 'Find something round / old / beautiful!' Pairs point and name in English.
• Photo mission — each pair 'collects' three things they can name in English; back on the bus, they present their three.
• Freeze & say — on 'Freeze!', everyone stops and names one thing they can see. Ten seconds, then walk on.

Back in class: the trip becomes the lesson

The day after, the trip is your richest topic of the term: draw the favourite moment and label it, tell three things you saw (the Name 3 cube has a WE-WENT-OUT energy to it), and build a class story — 'We went by bus. We saw…'. The words stick because the memories are theirs.