Friday, February 10, 2012

Camp-Outs, Constellations and S'Mores!

My kids are still talking about our camping week! (BTW it was 4 weeks ago...) Our basal reader story for the week (I know...I hate them) was all about camping, and since it was a review week, we really had fun with it! We made anchor charts of everything that you can do while you are camping, what you bring with you, etc. We read all these picture books about camping! Arthur of course got the best reviews!



Then, during our long afternoon, we had a camp-out!! It was so much fun! We had just finished our space unit and were still really into constellations. So I bought a black plastic tablecloth at Dollar Tree (my favorite store on the face of the earth) and drew constellations on it with a silver Sharpie. I taped it up under one of my tables, and let the kids go under it and find the constellations with a flashlight! I was in so much trouble when I took it down! I was told: "We weren't finished learning from it yet!"

I also fashioned a make-shift fort/tent in the corner of my room that we just read and played games in.

We were learning how to write "How-to" lists. We wrote them for how-to roll up a sleeping bag and how-to make a s'more. You can get them for free here.

We were also in the midst of learning about money. So in order to make their s'mores (the culmination of our afternoon), they had to buy the ingredients. So I set up a little store and the kids had to buy their marshmallow, graham crackers, and chocolate. They loved that they got to play the customer!

Lastly, and probably one of the most fun, was making campfires. I keep everything (and I mean everything) and I finally found something to do with all of my paper towel rolls. I had to smash them up a little so they would stack on each other. This activity was about following directions. The students had to look at pictures of different ways to make a campfire, and replicate it. They even had tissue paper fire. It was so cute! We all posed for our pictures with our hands "warming" in the fire.

We finished our day off making microwave s'mores. So easy! 8 seconds in the microwave and you have a delicious s'more, without all the work!

It was such a fun afternoon and there was so much learning involved. My kids never have any idea that all the fun stuff that we do is making them smarter!

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera (that is at school)! I will add them tomorrow when I go and get it!

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