Homeschool Theme of the Week: A-Camping-We-Will-Go!

I know camping is sometimes considered more of a summer activity - but if you lived where we do and stepped outside into the intense heat of just one summer day, you would probably turn tail and wait for autumn's fine weather as well!  :)  Thus, we found ourselves planning a camping trip with some friends, and I knew a "A-Camping-We-Will-Go" theme would be just the right one for this particular week!  See for yourself...

To get us started off on the right foot, I slipped a "map" into one of my daughter's workboxes.  Not just any map - but a map directing her to a campsite in our very own living room!  I selected a special spot and there I secretly placed a real cooler, a flashlight, a campsite sign, a faux fire, sleeping bag, and items to make a tent.  This went over VERY well when the map was followed and the camping treasures were discovered.  Thus, our camping week began with a flourish!  :)

Our fishing pond near the campsite...  :)

Of course no camping trip would be perfect without a little stargazing, so we made a few of our own constellations using glow-in-the-dark paint (I printed some dot-to-dot constellation pages on black paper and we just used the paint on top of the dots/stars. If I could not find a printable page for the constellation I wanted, I just tried to draw the dots/stars myself).

It is always wise to be aware of your surroundings and know a little about what NOT to do when camping, so we made a little folding accordian book titled "Be a Safe Camper".  Some "DON'T" pages were:  Don't touch poison ivy, leave snakes alone, don't eat berries and mushrooms, etc.



Another fun camping themed activity was to identify and make animal tracks using some free printable cards from http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/. 

We also enjoyed using some FREE camping printables from http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ and some online games here:
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/  (Find constellations in a night sky.)
http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/amazing-animals/games/game_animal_tracks.html (Match animal tracks to the animal which made them.)

Of course, the culmination of our week was when we went on our family camping trip to a beautiful park!  Joining up with some friends, we had a wonderful time!  :)

Below are some books we read for our theme as well as some that seemed like they would be a good possible addition for the future.  I also added a camping game and a play set that looked like a lot of fun!  :)

Check back Friday for our first "Friendly Friday" post which goes along with this theme!  :)



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