Field Trips

About 826 Seattle Field Trips

Greetings, Educators!
826 Seattle is pleased to offer free, fun filled writing-based field trips throughout the 2009-2010 academic year. 826 Seattle is a creative, inspiring place for teachers to bring their students to improve their writing during the school day. All field trips and use of our space is free. Our field trips typically run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10 a.m. until noon, and are available for one class of students at a time. Field trips must be scheduled by teachers in advance. We accept teacher requests for field trips shortly before the start of each semester.

For questions, please contact Kathleen, our Programs Director, at 826 Seattle via email at kathleen@826seattle.org.

This year’s field trip offerings include:

Mr. Geoduck Publishing
Recommended for Grades 1*–3
1 weekday session (Tuesdays), 10:00am - 12:00pm

This is our most popular field trip. Students are charged with the task of writing a story as a group and are aided by our enthusiastic 826 Seattle volunteers. While the students decide on characters and plot points, an 826 Seattle volunteer types the story, which is projected onto a large screen, enabling students to track their progress. Suddenly, their work is interrupted by a loud and demanding voice from the back room. It is Mr. Geoduck, a grouchy publisher of children’s books. He demands an original, interesting story from this group or there will be trouble! With a renewed sense of urgency, students continue the important work of writers–tracking the story as it is created and making corrections as needed, all the while watching as an artist illustrates their tale. After our team of volunteers prints and collates the book, adding each student’s photo to the back of the book’s “About the Author” page, each student is given his or her own copy of the book. Students are then invited to finish the story — which the group has left at a “cliffhanger” ending — in their own individual ways, and to create cover illustrations. This field trip teaches students about collaboration, self-editing, the bookmaking process, and elements of successful storytelling. And it’s really a good time for all.

*Because we strive for all students to feel confident and successful during the independent writing portion of this field trip, this class is not recommended for 1st grade classes until the second semester.

Choose Your Own Adventure
Recommended for grades 4-8
1 weekday session (Thursdays), 10:00am - 12:00pm

During this field trip, students explore the effect that characters’ choices have on story. They will create an original choose-your-own-adventure story, follow its twists and turns, and write its multiple conclusions. At the end of this workshop, each student will take home a copy of the class’s adventures, bound together in a pint-sized book.

The Space Adventure Comic Book
Recommended for grades 4-8
1 weekday session (Thursdays), 10:00 – 12:00pm

During this field trip, students work with a talented local comic book artist to craft original space adventure stories using powerful words and expressive pictures that create complex characters who find themselves in new exciting situations. At the end of this workshop students will walk away with their very own Space Adventure Comic Book.