Camping Lesson planning page
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- Set out an invitation to 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.
- Set up around a pretend campfire in the classroom and sing fun songs
- Find and decorate rocks to have as a rock pet
- Make rock sculptures. Take photographs to share with parents, to display in the classroom, and to add to portfolios.
- Invite children to decorate a box to use as a pretend canoe
- 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. As always, be aware of allergies when selecting food items for activities.
- 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.
Galaxy Dough from Growing a Jeweled Rose
Lantern Craft from Making Learning Fun
Hand print Campfire from the Measured Mom
Binoculars Craft from Cupcakes for Clara
Night Sky Art from My Nearest and Dearest
Paint with Marshmallows from Fun-A-Day
Lantern Craft from Making Learning Fun
Hand print Campfire from the Measured Mom
Binoculars Craft from Cupcakes for Clara
Night Sky Art from My Nearest and Dearest
Paint with Marshmallows from Fun-A-Day
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.
Here are some fun camping spaces shared by our Community Members.
Cheryl V.
Adventurous Learning
Adventurous Learning
Erica's Educare Learning Center
Erica's Educare Learning Center
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Erica's Educare Learning Center
Erica's Educare Learning Center
Erica's Educare Learning Center
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- Set up a pretend fishing station, here are a few ideas:
- Use magnetic rod and fish sets like this one
- Use magnetic rod and fish sets like this one
Literacy Activities Included in the Pre-K Printable Fun Camping Activity Pack:
- Camping Literacy Cards
- Camping Pre-Writing/Pre-Cutting Practice
- Lantern Uppercase/Lowercase Matching
- Camping 3-part cards
- Camping Word Wall Cards
- Camping I Spy
More:
- 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 adding a check box next to each object.
- Play I Spy. Encourage children to use good descriptive words during this game. You can use this opportunity to introduce new vocabulary. If a child describes something as being "big" you could say "Is it huge like a car or bigger like an enormous blue whale?"
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
Sun Up, Sun Down by Jacqui Bailey
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
Fed and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman
- Consider adding Leaf Rubbing Plates to your Science Space this week.
- 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.
- Make Shadow Puppets
- 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.
Math Activities included in the Camping Activity pack from Pre-K Printable Fun:
- Campfire Shape Clip Cards
- Tent Shape Clip Cards
- Camping Shape Matching Puzzles
- Color Matching Tent Activity Matchup
- Roll A S'more Mat
- Camping Count and Clip Cards
- Camping Number Puzzles
- Marshmallow Roasting Counting Mats
- Tent and Backpacks Ordering
- Camping Patterning Activity
More ideas
- 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.
- Playing cards while camping is something I always enjoyed as a child. Take this theme as an opportunity to teach some fun card games such as Go Fish or Slap Jack.
Add Pretend Trees, and Scraps of Fabric, Tape and Popsicle Sticks and Tape for building Tents. Add woodland animals, and natural elements such as pine cones, Stones and small twigs to the building space. Provide the children with Dark Fabric to practice creating 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.
Fantastic Fun and Learning
Be sure to check out this adorable camping inspired small world space was created by Fantastic Fun and Learning.
- Act out the story/song Going on a Bear Hunt, be sure to include movements for all the parts of the song to give the whole body a workout.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Educator Resources: Group Activities, Circle Time, and Parent Engagement
- 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 tic-tac-toe using sticks as the frame and pinecones and rocks as the playing pieces.
- Sing songs around the "campfire"
- Ask parents to sign up to donate items for the trail mix.
- Invite parents to help setup your pretend campsite
- Ask parents to loan your classroom some camping gear for exploration.
Resources for Pre-K at Home coming soon!
More Resources from Around the Web
DIY Leaf Plates can be found on the 5 Orange Potatoes Blog.
This is a great week for teaching about the Animals that come out at night. Check out this cute Nocturnal Animals Sensory Bin, from My Nearest and Dearest.
Another fun Science activity this week is learning about Animal Tracks. Check out this Free Animal Tracks Printable Activity from Deceptively Educational.
S'mores are a favorite camping treat, Erica of Erica's Educare Learning Center created this fun alternative S'more Trail Mix for her kids using: Honey Graham Cereal, Mini Marshmallows, and Chocolate Chips. This indoor S'more maker fun Hershey is another fun alternative!
Day and Night Sensory Sorting Activity from Two Daloo
Pine Needle Discovery Bottles from Teach Preschool
Here is a fun DIY for your camping space. Find out how to create a Lantern from Here we are Together.
