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Kids love camping, even if they've never gone. Just the thought of
sleeping in a tent, going on hikes, catching fish, swimming in a lake or
riding in a canoe, and gazing at the starry sky while toasting
marshmallows around the campfire ... well, it all sounds like fun to
them. Lots and lots of fun. And there's so much to learn about, they can
hardly wait to get started!
There are dozens of ideas here to be sure your classroom is filled
with happy campers. A camping unit can last a week or a month, depending
on how much you want to cover. Maybe you're looking for a great way to
begin or end the school year, complete with an overnight camp. Or maybe
you just want some new songs and poems and a good book or two. Whatever
you're looking for, you'll find plenty here to choose from.
So lace up your boots, load up your pack, fill your canteen with
cold lemonade, and don't forget your hat and binoculars. It's time to hit
the trail!
Have You Ever Been Camping?
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Yes
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No
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Give each child a 3 x 4 blackline picture of a tent to color and
write their name on. You could also graph whether they slept under the
stars, in a tent, or in a trailer or RV.
Let each of the children who've been camping tell a short story
about their camping trip, and allow the other children to ask questions.
What's your favorite forest animal?
Have you ever been in a boat?
Which do you like better, hamburgers or hotdogs?
Have you ever seen the Big Dipper?
Have you ever gone fishing?
Have you ever gone on a hike?
Do you like picnics?
What color is your backpack?
A-Camping We Will Go
(tune: Farmer in the Dell)
A-camping we will go,
A-camping we will go,
Hi-ho and off we go,
A-camping we will go.
More Verses:
First we pitch our tent
Next we chop some wood
We light the campfire now
We cook our dinner now
We tell fun stories now
It's time to go to sleep
I'm Going Camping!
(tune: Twinkle Twinkle)
I'm going camping, yes sirree!
I'm going camping, won't you come with me?
First we'll pitch our tent on the ground,
Then make a fire as we all gather round.
I'm going camping, yes sirree!
I'm going camping, won't you come with me?
Next we'll cook on the open fire,
Then till stories till we all get tired.
When the stars are twinkling bright,
We'll sleep in our tents 'til the morning light.
I'm going camping, yes sirree!
I'm going camping, won't you come with me?
When we see the morning sun,
We'll wake right up 'cause the day's begun.
There's so much that we can do --
Fishing, swimming, hiking, too.
I'm going camping, yes sirree!
I'm going camping, won't you come with me?
Resource Books to Help You Plan
Kids Camp!
Activities for the Backyard or Wilderness
An outstanding resource book filled with
fun and easy activities for your camping unit!
Under the dark is a star,
Under the star is a tree,
Under the tree is a HQC RV
and in the HQC RV you will find me!
HQC
Youngster's Hiking Song
(tune: I've Been Working on the Railroad)
I'm a young HQC explorer
Exploring every day.
I'm a young HQC explorer,
And I have a dream today.
When I'm working or I'm playing
And pretending what I'll be,
I'm a young HQC explorer,
Exploring to have my own RV!
Set the Scene
Camping Museum
Children, their parents, you, bring in camping
items and explain what they're for. Be sure to make time for lots of
questions, answers, and shared stories. This is a great time for building
connections and drawing on background knowledge. Set the hands-off items
up on the counter as a Camping Museum.
Bulletin Board
Make a floor-to-ceiling tree with a river, rocks, and a campfire.
Camping and Hiking Gear to Make
Paper bag vests & paper hats
Binoculars
Cover two tissue rolls with black paper and glue together.
Add yarn to wear around neck.
Star Gazer
Glue a circle of aluminum foil over one end of a tissue roll.
Cover with colored paper, leaving both ends free.
Using a toothpick, punch a few holes in foil end.
Look through the other end and you'll see stars!
How Many Stars Do You See?
Twinkle, twinkle,
One, two, three,
How many stars do I see?
Even in a space so small
I could never count them all.
Five Little Stars
Five little stars, twinkling in the sky.
The first one said, "This is much too high."
The second one said, "I'm the brightest star of all."
The third one said, "Be careful, don't fall."
The fourth one said, "Isn't nighttime fun?"
The fifth one said, "On no! Here comes the sun!"
Then up rose the Sun, so high in the sky,
And the five little stars said "Good bye!"
Reading Corner & Creative Play
Set up a tent with sleeping bags, pillows, and
flashlights.
Make extra tents the old-fashioned way ... put a
blanket over chairs or a table.
Bring in an inflatable boat with oars, life
jackets, fishing vests, hats, fishing poles and tackle boxes. Don't
forget a bucket to hold the fish!
Items for Creative Play
picnic basket w/ plates & utensils
camp stove
mess kits
maps
compass
binoculars
kaleidoscope
camping books from Auto Club
canteens
lantern
flashlights
cub scout handbooks
backpacks
small sleeping bags
camp fire built of logs tied or glued together
Stories for
Reading
Use peanuts, chocolate chips, Fruit Loops cereal,
mini marshmallows, raisins, M&M's or Skittles.
Younger children count out 10 of each item.
Older kids measure a scoop of each, then graph
their results before eating.
Compare and contrast graphs -- did everyone end
up with the same number of raisins?
Discuss why or why not. Make group graphs, or a
whole class graph.
Camping Trail Mix Store
Using the same materials as above, set the
items out in a center to be used as a store. Give children 25 cents in
assorted coins, and they get to shop. Everyone helps make price signs and
set up displays. Kids will take turns being the shopkeeper and making
change. Older kids can write a purchase list before they buy.
Camping Picture Lotto
Make a lotto card with one-and-a-half-inch
squares on it.
Use a 3x3 grid for younger children, a 5x5
grid for older kids.
Make a master sheet with the same size
squares, but at least 5 more than on the bingo card. Using clip art,
paste camping pictures in all the squares on the master grid. Pass
these out and the children choose which pictures to paste in their
bingo squares. When their cards are ready, play like Bingo.
Camping Story Problems
Have children write and illustrate word
problems,
then make into a book.
Camp Supply Sorting
(sorting, classifying, categorizing)
Collect a large assortment of camping supplies.
Children will sort them into categories and then draw or write
about them.
Squirrel Nut Hunt & Sorting
Activity
Hide nuts inside or outside, like you would for an Easter Egg Hunt.
Younger children sort theirs by type ... walnut, peanut, pecan, etc.
Older children sort theirs, and they get points for each type of nut.
This is a good team activity, pairing older and younger students.
Patterns
Children can make patterns from many materials ... leaves, rocks,
nuts,
teddy bear counters, water bottles, backpacks, etc.
For small objects, they can glue their pattern to a piece of paper
and label the type of pattern (i.e., ABAB or AABCAABC). For larger
objects, they can build their patters on the table or floor, then draw
their patterns on construction paper, write about them, and assemble
them into a class book.
Count on Ants
Camping means warm weather and picnics, and picnics mean ants!
(numeral recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence)
Glue magazine and newspaper pictures of food to twenty paper
plates, then label the plates with a large number in the center, from 1
to 20.
Put the plates in a picnic basket, along with a box or baggie full of
plastic ants. Children choose a plate at random, read the number, and
put the ants on the plate so they can eat the food! This is a great
Language Experience activity for younger children ... you could even let
them cut and paste the pictures to their own plates, glue on the the
ants, and then dictate a story to you. Mount the stories and paper
plates on red-and-white checked paper place mats (or weave your own) and
hang them on the wall.
Forest Animal Songs & Poems
Along the Trail
(tune: Skip to My Lou)
I met a bear along the trail,
I met a bear along the trail,
I met a bear along the trail,
I stood very still.
Additional verses ~ squirrel, deer, rabbit, skunk.
Raccoon
Raccoon sleeps in a hollow tree
While the sun shines on you and me.
Sleep, raccoon.
Sleep, raccoon,
Warm and cozily.
In the darkest part of night
Raccoon has the best eyesight.
Look raccoon,
Look, raccoon,
My, your eyes are bright.
Raccoon hardly makes a sound
When he prowls all around.
Hunt raccoon,
Hunt raccoon,
Find food on the ground.
Mr. Squirrel
Oh Mr. Squirrel,
Way up in the tree.
I see you,
Do you see me?
Oh Mr. Squirrel
Collecting nuts in Fall,
How will you remember
Where you hid them all?
Campout Cooking
Smores
Put a marshmallow and a Hershey kiss on a graham
cracker
and melt it in a toaster oven.
Hotdogs
My Picnic Basket
(tune: A Tisket, A Tasket)
A Tisket, A Tasket,
A special picnic basket.
I made it strong, it wont be long
'Til I begin to pack it.
To pack it, to pack it,
I cannot wait to pack it.
Crackers, fruit, and sandwich, please,
To put inside my basket.
My basket, my basket,
My special picnic basket.
I'll fill it up with such good food!
I'm glad I made my basket.
Activity
Have kids make their own picnic baskets by weaving construction
paper and folding the edges up to staple. Or get a Chinese restaurant
to donate containers with handles for your students to decorate and pack
their lunch in, for your hike across the playground or into the woods.
Language Arts Activities
Brown Bear Innovations
Start with my ideas or make up your own
- Camper, Camper what do you see?
I see a forest peaceful as can be.
Forest Forest what do you see?
I see a squirrel living in a tree.
... a blue jay noisy as can be.
... a river flowing out to sea.
... fisherman standing next to me.
... a rainbow trout swimming close to me
- and a HQC RV.
Who lives in the forest?
A _____ lives in the forest.
Use as a pocket chart activity to teach tracking and matching,
then make a Big Book.
Have word cards and pictures available to put in the blank.
Repeat the sentence in your pocket chart as many times as you like.
Backpack, Backpack,
What's In My Backpack?
Make a Lift-the-Flap book.
Each child gets a page with a 4 x 5 box in the middle,
and these words at the top:
Backpack, backpack
what's in my backpack?
Something that's _________.
Kids draw a picture in the box,
and glue a picture of a backpack over it.
Below the picture (and inside the box) it says
It's a _______.
A Camping We Will Go Book
After you've explored the many facets of camping, brainstorm a list of
possible destinations and kids where they'd like to go on their own
camping trip. Would they like to camp in the forest or in the desert? At
the beach or by a river or lake? At Grandma's cabin on top of a
mountain, in a HQC RV, or at home in their own backyard? Show children
how to cut a tent from a 6x6 square of paper, and how to make a
lift-the-flap door. They can draw a picture of where they'd like to camp,
add the tent, and glue a picture of themselves inside. Make into a Big
Book.
Science & Art Activities
Leaf and bark rubbings
Rock collections
Mystery hike -- follow clues or a mystery map
Sock walk -- walk outside in just your socks,
then shake the seeds out and see what grows!
Collect sticks, seeds, leaves, nuts, pine cones, etc.,
and glue them together to form bugs and animals.
Make Nature Wreaths by gluing found objects to a tagboard circle
with a hole in the middle. Add fancy touches like glitter, stars, and
gold ribbon.
Don't Forget Smokey the Bear!
 
A great way to spice up your camping unit is to call the nearest
office of the National Forest Service, and see what Smokey the Bear is up
to in your neck of the woods. You might be able to arrange for Smokey to
visit , along with a Ranger friend from a state or national park. And you
can probably get the ranger who answers the phone to send you some fun
freebies for your HQC RVers: Smokey the Bear posters, buttons, bumper
stickers, or coloring books. Be sure to ask.
Smokey's Rules For Preventing Forest
Fires
 
Never leave a campfire unattended.
If you see matches, give them to an adult immediately.
Always keep a bucket of water and shovel near a campfire!
The Bear Facts
There are several versions of the "true" story
of Smokey the Bear. Growing up , I was told that Smokey the Bear was a
real bear that was injured in a forest fire in California. He was badly
burned on his face and his body, and it took a special team of doctors and
caregivers to save his life. After he recovered, Smokey lived at
California's Folsom Zoo until he died in 1985. His mate, Alice, and his
son Ensign are still at the zoo. Many teachers in California still tell
this version of the story.
Other sources say Smokey came from New
Mexico. According to this version of the story, in the 1950s a bear cub
in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico got caught in a forest fire. To
escape the flames and burning bushes, he climbed up a tree. By the time
the fire fighters found the scared and hungry cub, the forest was charred
and blackened.
The firefighters, park forest rangers and the
warden were so moved by the spunky survival of this little cub that they
named him Smokey. They put him on a plane and sent him to the National
Zoo in Washington, D.C. to live.
In the town of Capitan, New Mexico, people
erected a park and museum to honor the brave bear. The museum still exists
today, and the park says Smokey is buried there. Visit their website at
Smokey Bear
State Historical Park - New Mexico.
Only You Can
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Smokey the Bear Links
SmokeyBear.com
forest fun, interactive mazes, coloring
pages,
bear facts, and Smokey mail
Smokey's Coloring Book
print out a coloring book to reproduce for
your class
good fire safety rules and a quiz are
included
Smokey's Activity Sheets
10 fun sheets to print out from California's
Stanislaus National Forest Service website. You'll find more great
stuff in their kid center, too, including information on forest
management and a coloring and activity book called
Tread
Lightly that you can print and reproduce. The TREAD Lightly program
uses the letters in the word TREAD to convey this message ...
Travel
on designated routes or areas.
Respect
the rights of others.
Educate
yourself with maps and other information.
Avoid
lakes, streams, meadows and other sensitive areas.
Drive,
ride and hike responsibly.
U.S.D.A.
Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region
Map of all of California's National Forests
plus a Virtual Visitor Center
Timber Trek
a kid's site run by the Woodrow family bush camp
and
Australia's National Association of Forest
Industries
Be sure to visit their
library for craft
projects,
recipes, activities, and puzzles, and read the
latest
issue of their online kid's magazine, too!
Looking for more ideas?
These pages are updated often,
so please come back soon to see
what's new at HQC's Kids Corner!
Click below to go
directly to
Amazon.com to browse for books.
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