Let’s Go Camping!

The Plan

Small World: Blue Ridge Mountains

I have been visualizing this small world setup since the beginning of summer. What first started as a general “forest” theme became an homage to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the surrounding area, where we live. Between Chickadees Wooden Toys’ lovely trees and Melanie Shanks with her beautiful blue mountains, I could visualize the setup. The icing on the cake was the Safari Ltd Toob of animals from North America. I set this up while Vicky ate her lunch. I like to have little hands occupied until I finish the initial setup. This was a rookie mistake, since she promptly decided she was done eating. Fair enough. However, she spent the rest of the afternoon playing here, deciding to hold onto the otter until bedtime. Definitely leaving this one up for awhile!

P.S. The beautiful olive play mat is actually a clearance table mat from Ollie’s. Picked it up for 50 cents!

Cognitive Development: Pine Tree Leaves Sensory Bottle

This is one of those projects we’ll keep up long after the “camping” theme is over. My good friend has a beautiful pine tree that we took a snip off of. Then I placed it in a recycled Voss bottle and filled it with water. I had my husband put Gorilla Glue on the end since V is still hard on her sensory bottles. This way she can examine up close the texture of the branch, the way the leaves attach, and the different shades of green.

I’m going to make a point to research different trees in the Piedmont area. Maybe we can make a collection of sorts of all her scientific discoveries.

Gross Motor:

Starry Night Galaxy Bag

Are you looking for an easy sensory activity this Monday morning? Well, tied into our camping theme, I present the “galaxy bag”. You’ll need:

• 16 oz clear hair gel (clear is very important…notice that slight tinge in my bag? My hair gel wasn’t clear 🤣)
• 1 gallon storage bag (any brand will do – we are a GV household)
• glitter/stars (picked mine up from the Dollar Store)
• masking tape
• 1 piece of black construction paper

Before you do anything, tape the black construction paper to the front of the bag. This will hide the logo as much as is possible, since the logo side will become the bottom of our bag. Pour in your hair gel, glitter, and stars, and mix it all around. Close the bag and reinforce all the sides of the bag, with special treatment to the zipper. Voila! A starry night galaxy bag. Just like the view sitting under the stars when we’ve gone camping in the wilderness. Well, minus the mosquitoes, snakes, and coyote howls.

Leaf Exploration

We had a leaf hunt today! I’ll admit – I wasn’t looking forward to going outside as it is still very hot in my neck of the woods. Then I remembered this child’s microscope I bought on Ali Express almost a year ago. We went outside and started looking at the trees in our front and back yard. I helped her clip some of the leaves off and we brought it back in the shade to examine. Now, the magnifying power on this isn’t super strong, but it does the job and is very easy for little hands to hold. Anywho, we examined the different leaves we found and used our senses to explore the things that made them different and the things that made them the same. Which one smelled sweet? Which one smelled bitter? Or my personal favorite, which one had a hidden spider? 😐 All in all, it was a great nature activity to keep our camping theme going!

Cognitive Development:

DIY Binoculars

When we go camping, I love listening to the birds and observing them in their natural habitat. Today, I am trying to recreate that for Vicky. If you want to bird watch with us you’ll need a pair of binoculars. Here’s how to make you own. You’ll need:

• twine
• tape
• 1 paper towel roll, cut in half
• hole punch
• Washi tape

After you cut the paper towel roll in half, tape one piece of your twine on one of the roll halves. Then start winding it around the other half and circle back. Make sure to keep the winding taut. Tape down the other end when you’re finished. I took another two pieces of tape and placed them on the inside of each, reinforcing the work the twine was doing. Then using a hole punch, or a sharp knife, create an opening on the outer part of each roll and string your twine through, double knotting it so it stays attached. Repeat the process on the other side. I happened to have Washi tape lying around while I did this activity, so I jazzed up her binoculars, but it is totally optional. You can pick up some great Washi tape at Erin Condren. There you go! Let’s go find some birds!

Building Shelters

Today we talked about shelters and how all animals require them. I originally was going to try to use different blocks to make some shelters, but little hands struggled to reach inside and carefully place the animals. So, we busted out the Picasso Tiles. We snapped together different sized shelters and she started loading her little animals in. We even set up a little hinge on one of them. She loved snapping it open and close and putting her animals in and out. If you were curious, the woodland animals are from Safari Ltd. and the level of detail is insane! If we’re going to be perfectly honest, these Picasso Tiles have been a hit with EVERYONE in the house. If V and I are playing with them when Mr.PiedmontPearls walks through the door in the evening, he will put all his stuff down and immediately sit on the floor with us. It’s addicting. When I proposed getting more, his words were “I’m not saying no”…that’s his verbiage for “Go Buy It!”

Gummy Bear Color Sort

Haribo for the win! We talked about bears today and how they can be found in the forest, even close nearby! I saw this idea on several Pinterest boards with a few different ways to approach it, but I settled on a segmented paper plate. We had a bit of pretend play while we sorted (and ate) our yummy gummy bears. A win all around!

Art: Paper Snakes

S-s-s-s-snake! Today we made our own snakes our of a piece of cardstock. First, I sketched a quick spiral pattern and then handed it to her to color. After she had colored to her heart’s desire, I took a pair of scissors and cut along my spiral, adding a little smile and eyes to the end of the snake’s head. She was ecstatic. She looped her little snake around her arms, legs, neck etc. V ended up walking around going “Ssssssss” and trying to have the snake bite me. It was downright adorable. Also, did I mention this activity is practically free. I used cardstock because V is tough on paper products, but just a regular sheet of paper and some crayons are all that is needed.

Speech and Language Development: Forest Animal Flashcards

I found these lovely free printables from KIDSPARKZ. I keep them next to her small world set up and occasionally ask her to match one of her animals to the right card. It’s not a game in which I apply a lot of rigor. I want her to enjoy the pretend play. However, these are super useful when we’re telling stories or talking about other aspects of the forest. As I’ve mentioned before, even interacting with the printed word before the reading skill is acquired is very beneficial. Children get used to the shape of letters and the pictures help them piece together that this particular word stands for that particular picture.

Story-time: Little Red Riding Hood

Today we incorporated two of Vicky’s favorite activities into our forest theme: story-telling and dress up. Little Red Riding Hood is one of the best fairy tales AND it takes place in a forest. I haven’t done my roots in a bit, so I was definitely channeling my Wolf/Grandma persona. She pranced around in her red hood and I chased her around the house. What they don’t tell you is that Red carried Coach. 🤣 If you’re not sure how to approach story-telling and make believe, it’s easiest to start with known material. Start reading fairy tales and then try to branch out on your own. Give the princess your little one’s name. Name the dragon after your dog. It gets easier with time, I promise.

Fine Motor Development: Squirrel/Acorn Shape Puzzles

These printables were an awesome freebie I found on Frogs-and-Fairies. Aside from piggy backing on our forest theme, they also formally introduce shapes! Plus it’s a matching puzzle, which Vicky adores. As always, I printed out on cardstock so that little hands don’t destroy them on the first day.

Did you try any of our activities? Comment below and let us know how it went!