End of the Year Camping Day

Who wants to go camping? Whether you are in a traditional classroom, homeschool classroom or just hanging out with friends camping inside while learning is a ton of fun.  As a teacher I LOVE Camping Day because you get a lot of bang for your buck.  You get a lot of bang for your buck because all you really need are blankets, books, flashlights, some lesson plans and a couple of cheap snacks and kids are engaged for hours learning.

Everyone loves a good read aloud and it's even better when it's done by flashlight.  You can read to the children and then send them back to their tents to read with flashlights and friends. This is a great way to have a reading lesson.  We love the book, "A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee"!

For writing I like to build a simple campfire out of a fan and tissue paper taped to the fan.  The fan rotates completely up so it blows the tissue up like flames.  I got it from Walmart.  I've seen this done with construction paper and logs too.  We use this to sit around and tell stories.  It's a great way to get speaking and listening standards into a fun writing lesson.

Tents are simple.  Everyone just brings in old blankets and uses whatever furniture, backpacks and other materials we have to construct tents.  My rule in the classroom is that it has to be open around the bottom so that I can see everyone.  You can construct these during science or math and make it into a lesson on engineering or measurement.

For treats I like to make S'mores bags.  It's just a mixture of Honey Grahams, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.  You could teach Science with this and do mixtures.  If you want to explore chemical changes you could bring in a toaster oven and make traditional S'mores.  Just make sure the fire marshal is far away that day.

Aside from all of the fun mentioned above I also have fun print and teach activities that I created for the day.  If you need more materials click on the picture below.