For this lesson you will need
Alphabet (capital and lowercase) on piece of paper
Letter squares (see letter of day)
Word strips (see letter of day)
Counting worksheet (see below)
Camping items such as: sleeping bag, lantern, wood, newspaper, flashlight, water and bugspray
Blankets (a few)
Pan
Paper towel tubes
Can of beans (optional)
Bowl and strainer
Stuff for s’mores (NOT optional )
Books: Arthur's Camp-Out - Lillian Hoban
The Berenstein Bears Go Camping - Jan Berenstein
Welcome Song: To the tune of “I’m a Little Tea Pot”
Mornin’ everybody
How are you?
It’s time for us to learn a little something new!
Turn around in circles
shout ‘HOORAY!’
Glad you’re here with us (clap) to(clap)day! (High five!)
Question of the Day: If you were stuck in the woods for a few days and had no food left in your back pack, what would you eat? Allow children to share their answers. Share your answer with the children as well.
Letters:
Before class:
1: Write the entire alphabet (capital and lowercase letters) on a piece of paper.
2: On several small square pieces of paper, write a different letter. Make some of them capital letters, and some of them lower case letters.
3: Cut a piece of paper in half. On one of the pieces write ‘CAPITAL’, and on the other, write ‘lower case.’
Explain to children that they are going to get a lot of practice with capital and lower case letters today. Hold up the piece of paper with the alphabet and point to several of the big letters. Explain that the big letters are called capital letters.
Ask each child to circle a specified capital letter…for example: “Lisa, can you circle the capital letter G?”
Explain that the smaller letters are called lower case letters. Have children take turns circling a specified lower case letter. Point out that we use both capital and lower case words when we read and write.
Place the word strip that says CAPITAL on your right side, and the word strip that says lower case on your left.
Lay all of the letter squares of paper on the ground, letter side down. Have children take turns choosing one letter and deciding whether that letter is a capital or lower case letter. Have them put it under the appropriate word strip. After it has been placed, ask them to tell you the name, sound, and ASL sign for that letter. (This is a great time to review signs and sounds!!)
If you have older children, you may want to explain when it is appropriate to use capital letters (at the beginning of a sentence, when you’re using names of people and places, etc.) and when lower case letters should be used. Allow children to practice using a mixture of capital and lower case letters by having them write their name and the names of some of their friends in their writing notebooks.
Counting: Create a worksheet following the example below.
Have children count the different groups of shapes, then draw a line from the shapes to the corresponding number in the middle.
This will give them practice with counting as well as number recognition. Try to use numbers that the children have a particularly difficult time remembering (For my girls it’s the numbers 12-16.) Practice makes perfect!
Topic: Before Class: Gather some camping items together and hide them under a blanket. Items could include a sleeping bag, lantern, flashlight, matches, water, piece of wood or whatever else you can think of.
Gather the children in a circle on the floor and say “Is everyone looking forward to summer time? One of the very best things about the summer season is that we get to go camping!” Ask children if they’ve ever been camping and allow them to share a story from their experience.
Ask children to think of all the things needed for a successful camping trip, and write the items down as they list them.
Read the list back to the children and as you do so, pull the camping items out from underneath the blanket, one by one. “I think we have everything we need for a camping trip. Shall we go?”
Activity: Lead children to the kitchen table and explain that the first thing we need to do when we find the perfect camp site is to create a shelter (something to cover our heads and keep us safe from wind and rain). What do people usually use as a shelter when they go camping? (A TENT!) Point at the table, and say “ I think we’ve found a perfect place to set up our tent. Drape a few blankets over the table and some chairs to create a tent big enough for everyone to sit in.
“Now that we have our tent up, I’m starting to feel a little hungry. We don’t have a stove or an oven out here in the woods! How are we supposed to cook our food?” (Build a FIRE) “Is it safe for children to build a fire? Fires can be very dangerous if we get too close, so it’s best if we stand back and watch the grownups do it. BUT there are a lot of things we can do to help the grown ups get ready to build a fire. What do you need to start a fire? (Wood, Sticks, Paper,)”
Have children gather some sticks from outside and some old newspapers from around the house and bring it back to the camp site. (You may also use paper towel tubes as ‘logs’. Show children how to place the wood and the paper to make a teepee or log cabin fire (see pictures below) Explain that the wood needs to be placed so that the air can get through the logs and the fire can spread to all of the wood.
If you have them, pour a can of beans into a pan and hold it over the fire like you’re warming it (Obviously this is not proper technique, but considering the lack of real camping resources, I think the kids will understand) Serve up the beans when they’re ‘warmed’ and ready.
Explain that water is probably the most important thing to take with you when you go camping. A person can live without food for a while, but they cannot live without water. If you run out of water that you brought from home, you need to find more!
Ask children where they might find more water when they are camping (streams, rivers, lakes). Explain that the water that comes from each of these sources is great, but it must be cleaned before we can drink it
Demonstrate how this is done. (See below)
Science: Lead the children to the kitchen and fill a bowl with water. Place a few objects in the water such as leaves and sticks and explain that this might be what the water looks like when you first collect it from the stream. The first thing to do would be to get the bigger objects out. Run the water through a strainer (sitting over a pan)
Turn the stove on to high and have the children gather around (making sure to keep their distance from the hot burner) Explain that the water needs to be brought to a boil (Lots of bubbles on top of the water) to kill all the little bugs and bacteria that are too small for us to see, but that could make us sick if we drank them. When camping, this is done over the fire.
Once it has been brought to a boil, it needs to boil for one minute. After a minute, the water should be clean enough to drink or to use for cooking! Pour it into glasses and into the refrigerator for drinking later
Songs: Point out that it’s getting dark…. and when it gets dark campers like to sit around the campfire and sing camp songs. Teach children any camp song you remember from your youth.
Don’t remember any? Here’s one for you to use.
Bear Song
The other day (echo)
I met a bear (echo)
Out in the woods (echo)
A-way out there(echo)
Altogether:
The other day I met a bear
out in the woods a-way out there.
(Continue in a similar manner)
He said to me
“Why don’t you run?
I see you ain’t
Got any gun”
And so I ran
Away from there
But right behind
Me was that bear
Ahead of me
I saw a tree
A great big tree
Oh glory be
The nearest branch
Was 10 feet up
I’d have to jump
And trust my luck
And so I jumped
Into the air
But I missed that branch
Away up there
Now don’t you fret
Now don’t you frown
Cause I caught that branch
On the way back down
The moral of
This story is
Don’t talk to bears
In tennis shoes
That’s all there is
There ain’t no more
So what the heck
You singing for
Reading: Huddle together in the dark tent and use only a flashlight as your light source while you read and discuss the following stories.
Arthur's Camp-Out - Lillian Hoban
The Berenstein Bears Go Camping - Jan Berenstein
You may choose to pass the flashlight around and make up your own ‘ghost’ stories instead.
Snack: Explain that no camping trip is complete without S’mores! Have children place a big marshmallow on a skewer, then watch as you hold the marshmallow over the burner on your stove (turned to medium high). Roast the mallows until golden brown. Place some chocolate on a graham cracker, put the roasted marshmallow on top, then top it with another graham cracker square.
Have a wash cloth handy for messy hands and faces.
Service: Explain that one of the most important things to remember about camping is that you always need to leave the campsite cleaner than you found it. Have children help each other clean up the campsite.
Physical Activity: Teach the children some camp games from your youth.
Capture the Flag
Keep away
Skunk Tag:
Played like regular tag but the only way to stay safe is for the chasee to place the right arm under the right leg and hold the nose. If tagged while not in the position then that person will become ‘it’.
Closing Song: To tune of The Hokey Pokey
Put your right hand in
Put your right hand out
Put your right hand in, and wave it all about
Thanks for joining with us and for all your friendly smiles
We'll see you all in a while! (clap)
