Let's Go Camping

Camping is so much fun! We had a great time hanging out in our tent with sleeping bags, pillows, a lantern, flashlights and doing lots of things campers do. We also had vests, backpacks, stuffed animals like bears, raccoons, squirrels and skunks and a pretend campfire to help with our dramatization.

Fishing is quite often on the agenda when one goes camping, so we went fishing in the lake. We caught plenty and then we let them go! We sang, "Have You Ever Been a Fishin'?"

Boating is another activity sometimes on the agenda when camping. We read Adventures on Klickatat Island

and then sang and played "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"...

We used marshmallows for an open-ended art activity...

We learned how to build a campfire by making candy campfires for snack one day. We used M&Ms to make a circle. They were the rocks to contain the fire. Next we added coconut which was the tinder- small pieces of wood, pine needles, things that will catch fire easily. Pretzels were the kindling. Tootsie rolls were added last to represent the log that keeps the fire burning. We made sure we had a bucket of water (a marshmallow) close by in case the fire got out of control.

The book, Willie Takes a Hike by Gloria Rand, provided us with ideas of things we need to stay safe while hiking and camping. Willie went hiking and got lost. Fortunately, he had his whistle with him. He hugged a tree blew his whistle until his rescuers found him.

We added beads to whistles with lacing so that we would have a whistle to use in an emergency. We practiced blowing them but were reminded that when really hiking or camping, we were to only blow them in an emergency.

We read 

and then acted out "Going on a Bear Hunt" where we maneuvered through mud and tall grass, swam through a lake, climbed up a mountain and back down again, and went into a dark, dark cave where we came face to face with a bear! 

We played a game called "Grizzly Bear". 

We sang:

Grizzly bear, oh grizzly bear is sleeping in his cave.

Please be very quiet. Shhhhh!

Very very quiet. Shhhh!

If you wake him, if you shake him,

He'll get very mad.

As we sang, we snuck up on the sleeping bear, woke him up and ran for our lives!

We played over and over and over again, because we absolutely loved this game.

The food we eat when we go camping is a huge part of the whole experience- hot dogs, beans, corn on the cob and watermelon...

And then, for snack- s'mores. The perfect combination of ooey, gooey, sticky!