Tentative Camping / Picnic / Animal Tracks Week

On Friday library day get next week theme books.

Monday: Book, songs,
make camping book
do flashlight pictures
make campfire snack

Tuesday: Weave placemat
Hungry bear taking items
Make sandwich on a stick

Wednesday: Make tent,
Go on a bear hunt
make trail mix

Thursday: Talk about animal tracks
Do animal track cards

Friday: Camping obstacle course
make nature boxes for trip
marshmallows

Picnic

weave a basket

Make these cute sandwiches on a stick.

Seasons

Match types of clothing to the seasons. Coats for winter. Sandals for Summer, etc.

Autumn:
Make trees by blowing paint and adding leaf glitter.

Forest Animals

Here's a great matching game to learn about animal tracks.

Animal Tracks: Give your child a basic understanding by first making footprints with his/her own feet. Let your child step into a bucket of water and walk down a sidewalk or driveway. Examine the footprints together. Make keepsake prints by painting your child's soles with paint and having him step onto a piece of paper. Label them "(your child's name) Tracks". Consider making prints with your feet to compare. Now, pull out your bucket of plastic animals and bugs, dip them in a shallow cup of paint or a stamp pad and make tracks with them, each on its own paper. Have your child tell you how each one is different as you label each page with your child's words. Lay them on a table with the corresponding animal toy for a science center activity. This can turn into a matching game!

Books / Folder Ideas

Make an envelope book.

Lots of different types of books.

Links to lots of mini-books.

Look at these match-box books.

Dinosaurs

Use jello to make egg jigglers. Put dino fruit snacks inside.

Paper mache dino eggs.

Let your child color the dinosaurs you cut out earlier. When she is done, cut a length of yarn long enough for her to lace around the dinosaurs. Let her lace around all but a small portion of the dinosaur. Use the crumpled newspaper to stuff between the two dinosaurs to give it dimension. Finish lacing the dinosaur, tie off the end, and tie a small length of yarn to the top to hang the dinosaur by.

Camping

Camping books to check out:
Amos Camps Out by Susan Seligson and Howie Schneider
Amelia Bedelia goes Camping by Peggy Parish

Make trail mix. Learn following instructions and measuring. One scoop of raisins, 2 scoops peanuts, etc.

Fun camping book.

Make dinner with the fish.??? Check this out.

Cute nature box!!

Camping songs from here.

Make campfires out of pretzel logs.

Make a tent out of paper. Fold the top corners down to look like a tent. Decorate with trees, etc.

Camping handouts to work on. Includes small pictures of camping items that may be able to be cut out and used to decorate tent picture.

Camping coloring pages.

Fun camping lesson plan. Need to read in further detail.

Make things out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

Do a Camping theme obstacle course. Go around the cooler, over the pyramid of sleeping bags, walk along the rope, etc.

TWIG FRAMES

	First, give each of your children four large craft sticks.
	Show them how to glue the four sticks into a square.
	Next, have each child glue small twigs on top of the frames.

HUNGRY BEAR

	Spread out a large blanket.
	Have your children sit around the outside edge.
	In the middle of the blanket, set four or five picnic, camping or food items.
	Point out each item and have children try to remember them.
	Have the children pretend they are on a picnic in the woods and get tired and decide to take a nap.
	While they are sleeping, along comes a bear (select one of the children to be the bear) and steals one of the items and drags it off (around a corner).
	When the children wake up, see if they can identify the missing item.
	When it is identified, the bear comes back and places the item back on the blanket.
	Another child is chosen to be the bear and the game is played again.

FLASHLIGHT PICTURES

	Have children sit in a straight line in front of a blank wall.
	Turn off the lights and turn on a flashlight.
	Hand the flashlight to a child and have them outline a simple shape on the wall.
	Have the other children try to guess what shape is being drawn.
	Let the child that guesses correctly, have the next turn.

STORY WHEEL

	Take a paper plate and glue small pictures related to camping around the outside of the plate.
	Attach a spinner to the middle of the plate. (A large safety pin attached with a paper fastener works great)
	Start a story about camping.
	Let your children take turns spinning the story wheel and then incorporate that item into the story. (If children are too young to participate in the story telling, just let them spin, then you continue the story, incorporating that item or element into the story.)

TWIG LETTERS

Find some small twigs and break them into 2” sections. Practice forming straight line letters with the twigs.

Ladybugs

yMake a cute ladybug book. This one allows you to paint fingerprints on it, and encourages counting.

Cute idea to do with counting.

Butterflies

Hatching Butterflies

Posted using ShareThis

Butterfly Mobile from Family Fun

It's a treat to catch even a glimpse of a butterfly, and with this colorful mobile, you'll have a fleet of the creatures hanging around. To make one, you'll need paper, scissors, colored translucent plastic report covers, glue, pipe cleaners, 28-gauge wire, fishing line and a wire coat hanger.

Start by drawing a butterfly wing on paper and cutting it out for a template. Place the template so that the straight edge is flush with the report cover fold, trace around it and cut out the shape. Unfolded, the cutout will be a whole butterfly. Use this method to make seven more.

Next, cut small translucent circles of various colors and glue two onto each wing. Then, wrap a pipe cleaner around the butterfly. Twist the ends of a piece of wire to the top and bottom of the pipe cleaner. Tie a length of fishing line to the center of the wire on each butterfly. Finally, shape the coat hanger into a figure eight and tie on the butterflies so that they hang at different lengths.

Make coffee filter butterflies

Do big bead caterpillars

Homes and Houses

Practice shapes by building a house. Here's a template.

Build a log cabin out of pretzel sticks and frosting.

Make a box town:

BOX TOWN

This is an easy way to make a toy town using old boxes, cartons, colored paper, scissors, tape, paper tubes, and crayons.

	To make buildings: Wrap up boxes and other empty containers with colored paper. Have an adult cut out doors if wanted. Use tissue tubes for chimneys. Decorate with windows, flower boxes, etc.
	To make trees: Use a tissue paper tube for the trunk. Draw a green blob on stiff paper or cardboard for the leaf canopy and cut it out. Tape the green canopy to the tube.

Match the animal with its home.
Homes Concentration Game

Space

Here's a good coloring page for them.

Clip from the Lion King on the stars?

Take a black piece of paper and put star stickers on it. Draw lines forming a constellation. Give the constellation a name.

Make a sequencing activity with aliens. Put them in order according to size. See here.

Police

Make a Police hat here.

Safety

I want the children to learn more about calling 9-1-1, what to do if there is a fire, phone numbers, etc.

There are some practice sheets here for calling 9-1-1.

Check here.

Lapbooking lesson

Pioneers

Whole themed lesson here.

Pioneer facts treasure hunt.

Picture of a handcart and items to put in it to cut, color and paste.

Edible covered wagons.

This pioneer puzzle game could be fun.

Misc.

Shadow Clock. The pioneers were able to tell time based on the position of the sun. Take each child out on your driveway. You're going to trace their shadow a few times (however many times YOU want to : ) Anyway, you have the child face the same direction each time. Using sidewalk chalk, trace each child's shadow. Have the child write their names by their shadows. (That was my children's favorite part - they love writing their names). We also wrote the time inside each new shadow. If your children are old enough, they could trace each other's shadows. Repeat every couple of hours. After it is all done, ask, Are the shadows mostly long or short? Why are some shadows in front and some are behind? Why are some small and some long? Have them think about where the sun is in the sky at different times of day. This is how the people were able to tell time back then.

More ideas I need to sort!

Science - Fun with ketchup. What you need: old grungy pennies, paper towels, ketchup, a plastic tray, placemat or cookie sheet, old toothbrush, soap and water. Wash your pennies first. I like to put all the pennies in a container with a lid, add warm soapy water, seal and shake. Rinse. Then, squirt a bunch of ketchup onto your work surface, add pennies and have the kids let them sit for at least 2 minutes to get the vinegar in the ketchup to start working on the copper oxide. Hand your children a toothbrush and let them scrub, scrub, scrub away. Toss the pennies back into the washing container, rinse and you're done!




Make snow globes here.

Make Glass Ice Balls and learn about mixing colors.

I want to make these chewy granola bars.

Chewy Granola Bars Recipe:

2 1/2 c. Oats - quick rolled oats

1/2 c. Rice Krispies

1/4 c. coconut

1/2 c. M&M minis

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/4 c. honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add all of the ingredients and mix together until combined. Press into a square 8×8 pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Let it set completely and then cut into bars. For thinner bars, press mix into a 9×13 pan. They seem to set a little better in the 9×13 pan. For additional topping ideas visit my Mini Chip Granola Bars post.

Let's recycle our crayons!!! Check this out.

This puffy paint made from self-raising flour and cooked in the micro looks so fun.

# 1 tablespoon self-raising flour
# a few little drops of food colouring
# 1 tablespoon salt

Then add some water to make a nice smooth paste.

Paint away on a nice thick sheet of cardboard (if you don't have enough paint brushes use cotton buds - they work really well).

Microwave the design on high for 10 - 30 seconds until the paint puffs and it's all nice and dry. We did ours for 30 seconds.

Firefighters

Lots of info here.

Math - Dalmatian Hot Dots (click here to download worksheet). Have the children place the correct number of red hots on each card (see picture).



Red Dots - Get tiny red dot stickers from a office supply store. Have your children put the red dots on hot things as you do a safety walk with them through your home.

Fiery Necklaces - Use red vinyl lacing string to lace colored macaroni: red, yellow, and orange.
File Folder: Fire Safety

Fire Truck Snack

Each fire truck takes one and a half graham crackers. This craft makes a great snack that kids can make themselves (with some guidance). This craft can be messy!

Supplies:

A paper plate Graham crackers (1 1/2 per fire truck) Tiny Ritz crackers (for wheels) Stick pretzels Black licorice Softened cream cheese (or thick frosting) Red food coloring A red jellybean, a red Dots candy, a cherry, or a strawberry

Have an adult mix a few drops of food coloring to the cream cheese (or frosting). The children will use this edible "glue" to put their fire truck together.

Start with a whole graham cracker. Using the back of a spoon, spread some of the "glue" on one side of it.

Put half a graham cracker on top of the "glue." This is the cab of the fire truck.

"Glue" a red jellybean, a red Dots candy, a cherry, or a strawberry on top of the cab. This is the fire truck's red light. "Glue" four of the tiny Ritz crackers to the sides - these are the wheels.

On the back of the truck, "glue" two pretzels parallel to each other. Then "glue" in broken pieces to make a tiny ladder.

"Glue" on a piece of licorice - this is the firehose. You now have a tiny fire truck that is great for snack time!

Independence Day!

Uncle Sam Ice Cream Cones

This 4th of July, invite your kids to turn ice cream cones into edible, festive Uncle Sam top hats.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 Wafer ice cream cone
White frosting
Blue fruit leather
Red and blue decorating gels
Red and blue M&M's
Canister of ready-made whipped cream

1. Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a plate and return it to the freezer to harden. Meanwhile, construct an Uncle Sam hat out of a wafer ice cream cone.

2. Use frosting to attach a blue band of fruit leather around the bottom of the cone. Squirt vertical stripes of red decorating gel down the sides and blue gel on the top.

3. Using a star tip, squirt on white frosting stars around the blue fruit leather, if desired. TIP: To avoid smudging the Uncle Sam hat design, have your child hold the cone from the inside while decorating it with fruit leather and icing.

4. Remove the ice cream-scoop "head" from the freezer and top with the Uncle Sam hat. Working quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt, add blue M&M's eyes and a red M&M's nose. Finally, add a whipped cream beard. To do this, have your child hold the canister upside down while squirting on a long white beard.

5. Serve up your Uncle Sam ice cream cone immediately. Makes 1.

Frogs

From Sugardoodle:

Make your own plague of frogs by gathering several 3″ x 5″ index cards and frog-color crayons and/or markers, then following these steps (see illustrations for each step):

1. Decorate the blank side of the card with lines, dots, and squiggles.

2. Fold the card in half the long way with the design on the outside. Then open it back up.

3. With the blank side facing you, fold the right top corner down to the left edge to make a triangle, then open the card back up.

4. Do the same on the left top corner to the right edge, then open the card back up.

5. Turn the card over to the frog-colored side. You will find a folded X on the card. Fold the top half of the card down so that the X is folded in half.

6. Open the card back up and turn it over to the blank side. Push the sides in and down along the fold lines at the top. Push the top down to form a triangle.

7. Fold the right flap of the triangle to the center. Do the same with the left flap. This will form a diamond shape.

8. Fold the right and left flaps to the bottom edges of the diamond. This makes the front legs of the frog.

9. To start making the back legs, fold the bottom part of the card inward from both sides so that two sides meet in the center.

10. Fold down the top of the frog just below the diamond shape.

11. Turn the frog over and fold the bottom part of the frog in half toward you. This gives the frog “knees.”

12. Turn the finished frog over and make eyes. To make the frog jump, push its back down and quickly let it go.
Have your family help you make a plague-sized batch of frogs. Then use them in a family home evening lesson about Moses and the children of Israel. Afterward, your frogs can plague your desk or bookcase. You can also have frog races or jumping contests.


Lilypad Toss
Published July 9, 2007 Crafting With the Urchins , Fiber Crafts , Sewing


Lilypad Toss

You’ll need:

* 2 (or however many players you have) not identical purl frogs — mine were made from scraps of green fabric that I don’t like but Katrina does.
* 5 lilypads — ours were cut from cardboard and painted by Katie. I might make a set for a birthday gift and then I think I’ll make the lilypads from felt. The lilypads should be numbered from 1 to 5.
* 5 lilies for your lilypads — these are totally unnecessary but really cute. We made tissue paper flowers (inspired by Erin) but if I was making a more permanent set I would make these from fabric.

Lilypad Toss

How to Play:
For the Younger Child

* Toss a frog into the stream.
* If it lands on a lilypad jump up and down and shout Yeah!
* If it lands in the stream go get it and try again.

Lilypad Toss

For the Slightly Older Child

* Each player selects their frog.
* Take turns tossing the frog. On the first turn try to toss your frog onto the lilypad labeled number 1.
* After successfully landing the frog on lilypad 1 aim for lilypad 2 on your next turn
* Continue in this manner until one player tosses their frog onto lilypad 5. The first one to do this is the winner!

Lilypad Toss

For the Oldest Child Who Will Be Amused by Tossing a Stuffed Frog

* Each player selects their frog.
* Take turns tossing the frog onto the lilypads for 10 turns.
* Each lilypad is worth a certain number of points (1-5). Keep track of how many points you earn.
* After ten turns add up each player’s points and the one with the most points wins!

(use foam for lillypads)

Transportation

Play red light/green light.

Make stoplight cookies like these at betty crocker-- put them in order-- red, yellow, green. Or you could use frosted grahm crackers with gumdrops, lifesavers, or m&ms.





Make a ramp and send cars down it. Measure which one goes the farthest.

Make tire tracks on paper with toy cars wheels dipped in paint.

Hold a car wash, and wash the bikes and ride on toys outside.

From Sugardoodle:

Free Play and Art - Make card board box cars. Find boxes big enough for the children to sit in. Cut the bottoms outs and the flaps. The flaps can be used to make rearview mirrors (cover with aluminum foil) or license plates. Paper plates can be used for the wheels. Make personalized license plates with their names. You could make a driving range for the kids to drive their cars on, different traffic signs and maybe have one child be a police man.

Parking Garage - You'll need masking tape. Place on floor place like a parking spaces, numbers or letters written in each space ( you can use pieces of paper with the number written on them). Children take turns driving their car to the correct number parking space that you assign them.

Stop Sign - Make an octagon out of red construction paper. Using black licorice, cut into half inch pieces. If your child is younger, write the word STOP on the paper and have them place the pieces of licorice on top of the letters. If they are older, have them spell STOP all by themselves (have them sound it out if they need to).

Movie - Have everyone watch a movie that pertains to this lesson plan in their card board cars. Give everyone a small bag of popcorn.

All Aboard the Color Train:
Cut out many "tickets" from different colors of construction paper. Give each child three or four tickets. Tell the children that you are the conductor of a Color Train and they can ride the train if they have a ticket that matches the color you call. Set up chairs or have the children line up to march around the room. Announce "All aboard the Red Train" or the color of your choice. Have the children give you their ticket and have them march around the room. After a minute, announce a new color. Variations: use numbers, letters or shapes instead of colors.

Train Sort
Set up a few boxes to make them look like train cars. Supply the children with different things (cargo) to sort into the boxes. Ask them to sort by color, shape, texture etc. Or let them sort and tell you how they chose to sort the items.

Number Train
Cut out a train engine and 5 box car shapes from construction paper. (You may choose to laminate them to make them last longer. Number the cars from 1 to 5, then ask the children to line the cars up in order.

Transportation songs

Train numbers worksheet

Manners / Etiquette

Manners
Contributed by Laurie

Where the Dinosaurs Roam

Print out the dinosaurs (in the file below) on colored cardstock and attach to popsicle sticks.

Story:

I went to a land… not far from here where dinosaurs roamed with manners I’d fear.

First of all I came across STINGY-STEGO. He’s big and greedy. He thinks he should always be first in line, first one to play games, first one to eat, fist one for everything. He acts like he’s the only one that’s important. He turns green with envy if you have something that he doesn’t. He gets upset until he gets his way, then he’s happy. However, by then everyone else is miserable. But he’s too greedy to realize that.

I quietly sneaked out of STINGY-STEGO’s and no sooner had I done this, I came upon an ANGRY-OSAURUS. Now he’s okay to be around if he’s in a good mood. He can be more fun that a truckload of dinosaur tracks when everything's going his way. But if it doesn’t, you better watch out because then he gets angry and pouts. Let me tell you some of the things that upset him and makes him feel sorry for himself. If he feels like his mother makes him do more chores than anyone in the family, then he pouts. If his teacher doesn't call on him first, then he pouts. He seldom has fun because he’s too busy pouting. Do you happen to know any ANGRY-OSAURUS’ in your land?

Better watch out, here comes TATTLE-ACHODON better known an the whine-osaurus. She’s always on the look out for something or someone to tattle on. She doesn’t play with the others a lot because she’s too busy trying to catch them doing something wrong. Then her favorite thing to do is go whining to a grown-up. “They won’t play with me. She called me names. He hit me.” It’s a good thing her feet are so big, so she doesn’t have to take so many steps running in and out whining and tattling.

After coming across the whine-osaurus. I decided this trip into the land not far from here was pretty exhausting, so I stopped for a quick picnic lunch high up in a tree. All of the sudden I could hear this terrible noise. It was the well-known YELLING-ADACTYL, and boy was he noisy! You could hear him wherever he was. In fact, when he’s around it’s impossible to hear anyone else! He zooms and yells wherever he goes. He may not be big, but he’s loud. Have you ever heard the voice of the YELLING-ADACTYL before? I climbed out of that tree as quickly as I could.

Boy, I didn’t know which way to go; no matter what way I turned I seemed to come across something I dreaded. Wouldn’t you know that the next one I’d see would be RUDE-REX. He wants to be the center of attention. He doesn't think it’s important to say “please” or “thank you”. He doesn't ask permission. Do you know what he did? He just grabbed my lunch! When it’s time to be quiet, he talks real loud. He even burps real loud just to be rude because he thinks it’s funny. He doesn't have any manners and if he’s not careful, pretty soon he won’t have any friends. Have there been any sightings of RUDE-REX near your place?

Oh, I hope you’re feeling sympathetic today, because here comes POUT-ASAURUS. Shhhh! Be real careful what you say around her because she gets her feelings hurt real easy. She is always discouraged and sad about something. She feels bad because she says she can’t draw as well as everyone else or because she can’t spell as well. She gets her feelings hurt if someone can’t play with her. Nothing much looks good to POUT-ASAURUS.

Oh-oh. I think I see BUTT-IN-BRONTO. I better burry and talk before he gets here or he will butt-in and then I won’t get a chance. Whenever anyone tries to talk when he’s around, BUTT-IN-BRONTO butts-in and talks louder and takes over the whole conversation. You don’t get much of a chance to talk when he’s around. I wish BUTT-IN-BRONTO would just butt-out.

Oh, my goodness, here comes POKY-CERATOPS! I almost forgot about her! She is always late. She pokes around until the last minute and then she can’t catch up. She makes her mother call her and call her trying to get her up in the morning. After she gets up she plays around getting dressed and eating breakfast. Then she’s the last one out the door. She’s the last one to school, the last one to dinner, she’s even the last one to play. Have you seen a slow POKEY-CERATOPS in your territory?

Well, it sure has been a long day. So I stumbled to my feel, and slid my backpack on and decided to head home when I came upon the most gorgeous sight you have ever seen! I had seen miserable faces all day long and I couldn't believe my eyes! I saw the biggest most colorful dinosaur of all. It had a smile on it like you wouldn’t believe. I quickly reached inside my backpack to pull out my book on dinosaurs. I learned that it was the
HAPPY-OSAURUS. And that he’s everyone’s friend. He’s courteous and friendly. He never interrupts. Nor is he stingy, he’s always willing to share. He never pouts, and he rarely tattles or whines. Sure of course sometimes he feels sad and discouraged; that’s only natural. But he doesn't carry it to extremes. And he feels real bad when he’s late and makes other’s wait for him.

I’ve been thinking, I guess I know what makes HAPPY-OSAURUS different than the other dinosaurs, and the kind of friend you’d like roaming in your valley. He’s polite, friendly, well behaved and most of all he’s happy! He’s the kind of guy that knows that he’s special too!

I sure hope that you’re lucky enough to have a lot of HAPPY-OSAURS’ living in your place. Because to be rude and inconsiderate is like living in the age of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are extinct and I hope bad manners in your home are extinct too.

Etiquette

Practice Setting the Table with templates from here.

Plan B

Well, my original plan is not working so well. So, we're going to try a variation. This will be more of a file box sort of thing..........