missteacher

It's important to take every opportunity to make the pupils talk about their personal experiences. Trips are great for that. If they're gone on a trip with the school (it may be any kind of trip), don't hesistate to talk about it in class - before or after, or both.
Before the trip, you can talk in the future tense: make them talk about their planning : what they're going to do, etc.
When they come back, use the preterit tense and make them talk about what they liked/didn't like. They will have a lot to say !

You can have them work on a summary of their trip or a kind of journal.

I chose to have my 3ème (learning english for 2 years) write a thank you note to their penpals and their family. They spent 10 days in a German family so it's a good opportunity to write a small letter and teach them:
-how to write a letter
-how to say thank you
-how to say what you liked

The fact that it's a german family doesn't really matter. Some of them spoke English anyway during their trip. The most important thing is that this task is real and it will therefore make sense for them.

Here is the lesson plan (in French):3eme-back_from_a_trip.pdf