Preschool Camping Activities and Lesson Planning Ideas

Below you can find tons of fun and engaging camping activities.

Pre-K Printables Club Members

Club Members can download all of our camping activities and this related Theme Planning Guide for free!
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Free Preschool Camping Theme Planning Map

Camping Under a Night Sky

Explore glow in the dark paint with an invitation to create a night sky using glow in the dark paint. See the details on my blog post Glow in the Dark Paint Art Exploration.

Try this craft!

Paint a Campfire

Materials: Paper plates or cardstock, yellow and red washable tempera paint or fingerpaint, paintbrushes, gluesticks, brown construction paper for logs
Preparation: Set up the paints and paper at a small table (optional: cover the paper with newsprint to handle messes). Have smocks nearby for children to put on.
Procedure: Lead this activity with a book that talks about campfires such as When We Go Camping by Margriet Ruurs. Next, ask children if they have ever experienced a campfire. Allow time for children to share their experiences. Be sure to ask open-ended questions about their experience such as "What did you like about the campfire?" Next, Invite children to create a campfire on their paper. Provide the colors red and yellow separately so they can experience mixing the colors. Children may choose to glue on brown construction paper for logs or simply have their entire paper filled with fire.
**Teacher Tip: If you set this up as a fingerprint invitation; have some blank white cardstock on hand, when children are done invite them to make a handprint onto the paper before they go wash, you can stick it in their portfolio, give to parents as a keepsake, or save for a teacher or child created gift for parents.

Campfire Songs

Set up around a pretend campfire in the learning environment and sing fun songs.
Be prepared with a list of songs that children can choose from and invite children to share new songs or even create fun new tunes.

Rock Sculptures

Part of camping fun is exploring all the new and interesting objects that can be found in nature.
Make rock sculptures; take photographs of the creations to share with family/friends, to display on the wall and add to portfolios for 3d art representation.

Create Trail Mix

Set up an invitation to create trail mix for snack one day. Place items into separate bowls with a small measuring cup in each. Children will put a small scoop of each item in their bag.

Camping Collage

Make collages using items in nature, take photos of the collages and return the items to where they were found when finished. This also helps children to learn the importance of caring for our earth and being respectful to nature as well as others.

Campground Dramatic Play*

Set up an Indoor camping space, or campground using our Campground Dramatic Play pack. Add a tent, Camp Chairs, Pretend Trees, Sleeping Bags , Trees, Backpacks, Camping Pots and Pretend Foam Marshmallows.

Here are some fun camping spaces shared by our Community Members.

Buy this Dramatic Play Pack

Add a blue tarp, sheet, or blanket to your space to make an instant "Lake".

Adventurous Learning

Erica's Educare Learning Center

Make Your Own Campfire

Make your own campfire out of tissue paper, cellophane, and lights from added effect. Create your own logs by wrapping wood grain contact paper (found at most dollar tree stores) around cardboard tubes.

Erica's Educare Learning Center

Pretend Fishing

Set up a pretend fishing station, here are a few ideas:

Use magnetic rod and fish sets like this one to set up a fishing invitation in your water table.
Set up a large curtain and pair with a long stick with string or pretend fishing pole, attach a clothespin at the end. Invite children to "cast" the line over the curtain. On the other side clip a fish cutout with a letter on it. When children reel it in they identify the letter.
Make pretend canoes from old boxes, set on top of a large blue blanket or rug. Spread around some pretend fish on the floor for children to fish for.

Create a Canoe

Collect some long boxes and invite preschoolers to decorate and pretend to use as a canoe.
Once complete use in a dramatic play invitation to pretend to fish or boat down a river.

Camping Themed Charades

Have children act out different things they would do while camping and have the rest of the class guess what they are. Some examples include: Getting inside a sleeping bag, roasting marshmallows, and using a flashlight.

Camping Small World Play

Use scraps of fabric, tape and popsicle sticks to build tents. Add woodland animals, pretend trees, and natural elements such as pine cones, stones and small twigs to the building space. Use some dark fabric to create a night time back drop. Small flashlights make a fun addition as well. You can also add a variety of small world camping sets to your space.

Build a Campfire

Give children Lincoln logs and templates for different log configurations to build a campfire.
Have them follow the templates to build a fire.

Hiking Cairns

Have children use different rocks to make hiking cairns. You can talk about how hiking is an activity you can do while camping and that hikers make cairns along the trail to help them get back.

Build with Marshmallows

Give children marshmallows and toothpicks and have them create different structures.

Hello Hot Dog
by Ms. Lily Murray
A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee
by Chris Van Dusen
Curious George Goes Camping
by Margaret Rey, H.A. Rey
Moonlight Animals
by Elizabeth Golding
*When We Go Camping
by Margriet Ruurs
S is for S'mores: A Camping Alphabet
by Helen Foster James
Summer Days and Summer Nights
by Wong Herbert Yee
Froggy Goes to Camp
by Jonathon London
Pete the Cat Goes Camping
by James Dean
Fred and Ted Go Camping
by Peter Eastman

Marshmallow Roasting counting mats 1-10

What could be more fun to count than marshmallows??
Pair these counting mats included in our Camping Preschool Activities pack. with white pompoms, or cotton balls, the included printable marshmallow counters, or even real marshmallows for some counting fun.

Camping Adding and Sorting

Challenge children to each find 5-10 objects around your pretend campsite. Add all the objects to one big container. Start sorting through the items. For each item encourage a class discussion of what the object could be used for at the campsite. Allow time for children to brainstorm ideas. Next, start sorting the items. You can sort by type, color, texture, or usefulness Challenge the children to think of ways they would like to sort the objects.

Camping Shape Matching

Invite your preschooler to play this fun matching game!
Match-up campfires to the same shape tent to work on shape recognition skills.
This activity is included in our Camping Preschool Activities pack.

Play Card Games

Playing cards while camping is something I always enjoyed as a child.
Card games are a great way to teach children all kinds of different skills! Pull out a deck of cards and teach preschoolers old favorites. Check out this blog post, Card Games for Early Learners for new and fun ways to teach preschoolers through card games.

Find out More on our Blog

Measuring Your Fish

Set up a pretend pond with different sizes of fish (could be images or toys). Once they catch the fish, they can use unifix cubes to measure the fish and record how long it is.

Tent Backpack Size Ordering *

Preschoolers are learning to place objects in order by size. Invite your preschooler to put these tents and backpacks in order by size.

Leaf Rubbing

Consider adding Leaf Rubbing Plates to your Science Space this week.

Nature Collections

Encourage children to explore the outdoor area around your pretend campsite. What kind of collections can they make from items found in nature? How many different types of materials can they find? **Teacher Tip: Make the campsite a toy free zone. Encourage children to find ways to entertain themselves using the materials provided for the campsite along with items found in nature.
Bring collections children have made at the campsite into the classroom for further observation. Pine cones and interesting rocks bring a lot of opportunities for discovery in the classroom.

S'mores Solar Oven

It just wouldn't be camping without s'mores!
Add some science exploration to your snack by making a solar oven to cook the s'mores in.
Find all the steps you need on my Solar Oven Tutorial.

Nature Walk

Go for a nature walk, bring along magnifying glasses and paper bags. Children can investigate different plants and natural objects they find. They can bring bag items that have fallen to the ground for further investigation and for your classroom nature collection.

Pine Needle Discovery Bottles

Make your own Pine Tree Discovery Bottles with your preschoolers!

Try this!

Nocturnal Animals

This is a great week for teaching about the Animals that come out at night.
This free Nocturnal & Diurnal Storytime activity is a fun sorting game for children to explore after reading a good book about animals.

Create a Camping Scene

Challenge those fine motor skills with this fun Create a Camping Scene activity included in our When We Go Camping Pre-K Book Companion (Member Exclusive)

Pre-K Printables Club Members: Get this in the shop!

Knot Tying

Take 2 ropes of differing sizes and knot them together in the . Have your student practice making knots (using the 4 ends). For an added fine motor workout have then practice untying them.

Act Out Going on a Bear Hunt

Going on a Bear Hunt is a great opportunity to get to move using their whole body.
Set up an elaborate invitation to swish through the grass and climb pretend mountains or use imagination. Be sure to encourage children to create the sounds as they go through the motions to work on oral language development.

Play Dough Mats

Work on fine motor skills by using play dough to create a fun camping scene. This scene is included in the Summer Dough Mats pack from PKPF

Camping Obstacle Course

Set up a pretend campsite outside:

Materials: Small backpacks, reusable bags, or plastic grocery sacks, assorted camp equipment such as tents, flashlights, pretend lanterns, small logs (be sure they are safe for little hands), empty milk jugs filled with water, and sleeping bags.
Place the gear needed for the campsite on one side of the yard. Invite children to bring the gear over to where the campsite is on the other side of the yard. This will give little bodies a big workout and support them as they work on collaboration and assigning roles.

Trace & Color Campfire*

Trace & Color Pages are an easy way to incorporate fine motor into your Camping theme. Pair with crayons for added finger strength development.

Make Dough Nature Prints

Make Play Dough Nature Prints

Materials: Play dough, items found in nature
Setup: Place the items in your dough center or set out an invitation to play by placing all the items on the table.

Alternatively, give fingers a big workout by using clay. See this example for creating clay snakes for inspiration.

Camping Scavenger Hunt*

Set your little campers up with a seek and find activity!
Search the campsite or the included scene for the items on the checklist.
This exploration is included in my Summer Seek & Find Activities pack.

Set up a scavenger hunt! Provide clipboards along with a list of objects for children to find

Tip: To promote literacy, use both words and photos for the items to be found on your scavenger hunt. Encourage pre-writing skills by having students mark off the check box next to each object.

Camping yoga

Practice camping themed yoga poses such as: mountain pose, downward dog (tent pose)

Camping Around the World

Explore camping around the world. Do some research on what people in other places do when they go camping. Are their differences? Share your findings with your group during circle time.
You can lead this discussion by asking students what they do when they go camping. There are lots of common activities, however many families do things just a little different.

Nature Sensory Bottles

Set up an invitation to create nature sensory bottles, or calm down bottles. Simply set out the bottles along with items your students have found in nature. As children are creating their bottle you can start a dialogue about when children might want to use their calm down bottle. Conversations such as these are a good time for you to reflect on how children are progressing with their emotional development. Are they using proper terminology for their feelings (angry, mad, happy, excited)? Can they think of a variety of solutions to problems? Can they recognize situations when they might need to take time by themselves to calm down? Have some post-its nearby so you can jot down anything important to include in assessments.

Contribution

Preschoolers are learning how they can contribute to the communities they are engaged in. This may include at home, the classroom community, and when they are in public spaces.
While camping it's important that everyone pitches in since there is so much to do!
Talk with children about how they can contribute when camping, and how they contribute to their community everyday.

Tent Assembly- Teamwork

Use teamwork to set up a tent
- Materials: You will need a variety of materials to create tents in a creative way. Suggestions: Sheets, Silk Scarves, Fort Clips or Beach Towel Clips, Tape, Cardboard, Newspapers, Towels, and Clothespins.
- Setup: Sort the materials into containers, provide ample space for this project
- Procedure: Split children into 3 different groups. Each group will choose the materials that they think will be best for building a tent. Once materials are collected children can get started. Allow freedom for children to try their ideas out, they may try to hang a towel with scotch tape...such a fantastic learning opportunity!! Be there to support them during this time. You can gently guide by asking questions like "Did your idea work?" "What could you do differently?" "What else could you try?" "what do you think happened?" Walk them through their process so they can problem-solve.
- Close: Once the materials are put away bring your group together. Allow everyone to share something about the experience. Encourage everyone to share something they tried that was successful, as well as something they tried that didn't work out so well.

Play a Game Together

Nature Tic-Tac-Toe

Play tic-tac-toe using sticks as the frame and pinecones and rocks as the playing pieces.

Roll a S’more game

This is a fun game to play independently or with someone else!
Roll the playing cube, identify the shape and add ingredients to the s'mores on the mat!
This game is included in the PKPF Camping Preschool Activities pack.

Campsite Safety

Camping is a time when children will be around an open flame. Talk to them about fire safety and how to prevent forest fires. You could even have a local park ranger come in and share information.

Educator Resources: Classroom Management and Parent Engagement

Camping Theme Sign-in Activity

Add some thematic fun and name recognition practice to your learning environment with my themed sign-in activities

Parent Involvement

Ask parents to sign up to donate items for the a s'mores trail mix.
Invite parents to help setup your pretend campsite
Ask parents to loan your classroom some camping gear for exploration.
Host a s'mores social! Mix it up a bit and create s'mores ice cream sundaes instead of roasting marshmallows.

Camp in your backyard-Family Activity

Encourage parents to set up a tent and camp their backyard this week!

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Preschool Camping Activities and Lesson Planning Ideas

Pre-K Printables Club Members

Free Preschool Camping Theme Planning Map

Camping Under a Night Sky

​Paint a Campfire

​Campfire Songs

Rock Sculptures

​Create Trail Mix

​Camping Collage

Campground Dramatic Play*

Make Your Own Campfire

​Pretend Fishing

​Create a Canoe

Camping Themed Charades

Camping Small World Play

Build a Campfire

Hiking Cairns

Build with Marshmallows

​Camping Word Wall Cards*

*Camping Literacy Cards

Lantern Letter Matching Mat*

I am going camping song

Stick and Stone Letters

Hello Hot Dog Pre-K Book Companion

When We Go Camping Pre-K Book Companion

Marshmallow Roasting counting mats 1-10

Camping Adding and Sorting

​Camping Shape Matching​

Play Card Games

Measuring Your Fish

Tent Backpack Size Ordering *

Leaf Rubbing

Nature Collections

S'mores Solar Oven

​Nature Walk

​Pine Needle Discovery Bottles

Nocturnal Animals

Create a Camping Scene

Knot Tying

Act Out ​Going on a Bear Hunt

Play Dough Mats

Camping Obstacle Course

Trace & Color Campfire*

​Make Dough Nature Prints

Camping Scavenger Hunt*

Camping yoga

Camping Around the World

Nature Sensory Bottles

Contribution

Tent Assembly- Teamwork

Play a Game Together

Nature Tic-Tac-Toe

Roll a S’more game

Campsite Safety

Camping Theme Sign-in Activity

Parent Involvement

Camp in your backyard-Family Activity

​Camping Activities from Pre-K Printable Fun

Camping Activity Pack

Campground Dramatic Play Pack

Color Cut And Paste a Scene

Trace and Color Pre-Writing Sheets

Summer Play Dough Mats

Summer Seek and Find Activities

Positive Student Notes

Camping Chores Obstacle Course (Members Only)

Hello Hot Dog Pre-K Book Companion (Members Only)

When We Go Camping Pre-K Book Companion (Members Only)

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