Camp Expedition

Introduction: Your class is getting ready to embark on a fun-filled adventure. You are going to camp! In the next few weeks you will create your camp environment and enjoy camp activities.

Task: Decorate your room like an outdoor campsite. Study the animals and plants that make up this environment. Enjoy camp snacks and read by the campfire. Play camp games and go on scavenger hunts. Make swaps that you can exchange with other campers and map you campsite. Shop at the camp store and write in your camp journal. It's going to be lots of fun.

Process:

1. A parent letter is sent home informing parents about the creation of camp and what will be needed. Parents are asked to donate a variety of items for the camp activities.
2. A second parent letter reminds parents that their children will be involved in a day camp during the last week of school. It also states that this camp will be a review of the second grade curriculum. Parents are encouraged to volunteer to become camp counselors.
3. In class, students choose an animal to research that lives in the camp environment. Note ***Our school ran 4 second grade "camps." Each one represented a different environment, complete with the animals, plants and Native Americans that lived there. Seminole Swamp (wetlands), Hopi Desert, Sioux Savanna (plains) and Powhatan Forest.
4. Students spend time using books and the Internet to research their animals. They make sure they know the exact size and appearance of their animal.
5. In art, students creat their 3-D animals.
6. Using books, students research the plants that grow in their environment.
7. As a class, they make large murals that they hang along the walls, suspended from ceiling to floor. The murals depict the environment, complete with plants.
8. The 3-D animals are attached to the murals, hung from the ceiling or placed around the room. Students label the plants and animals.
9. The day before camp starts, the furniture is moved to the perimeter of the room. A Native American shelter is created in one corner and a camp fire circle is built.
10. Monday morning, camp begins with the students bringing in sleeping bags, water bottles or canteens, flashlights and an empty backpack. A sample schedule is listed below but typical activities for the week include:
    • Campfire Circle (Morning Meeting with camp song and rules)
    • Making camp t-shirts
    • Creating S'mores
    • Constructing food chain mobiles
    • Lunch
    • Flashlight Reading (laying on your sleeping bag or blanket with the room lights out)
    • Constructing an environment diorama
    • Writing and sending postcards from camp (these are actually sent via the US Mail)
    • Animal Safari
    • Creating a map of their camp environment in the computer lab on KidPix
    • Writing in Camp Journals
    • Making a Native American craft
    • Visiting the camp store to make purchases
    • Making a camp flag
    • Making trail mix and camp swaps in art
    • Scavenger Hunt

    Descriptions of activities:

    Animal Safari: Students are given a list of animals and have to find them within the four environments.
    Native American craft: each teacher chooses a specific craft to make depending on the Native American tribes that existed in their environment (forest-drums , wetlands- , plains-shields , deserts-kachina dolls )
    Camp Store: Items for sale at the camp store reflected the environment of the camp. In addition, some "fun" items were also for sale. samples: snakes, alligators, compasses, visors, mini-notebooks, pens, pencils, keychains, kaleidescopes, glow-in-the-dark jewelry, mazes, terra cotta pots, animals card game, foam dice, mini-megaphones
    Scavenger Hunt: similar to the Animal Safari but items to find on the list include specific plants, Native American items and things around the camp such as a red bandanna.
    Swaps: these are made in art class. Each child receives a baggie with 5, 2"x2" squares of felt (their choice of colors) and 5 safety pins. The class brainstorms items that go with their environment and might make appropriate swaps (ie, kachina doll for desert, mini tepee for plains) Each class brings a large container of beads, pipe cleaners, felt, ribbons, yarn, sequins, etc. to art for everyone's use.

Opportunities to share:

1. Students have multiple opportunities to share. They work cooperatively and collaboratively as groups to create their murals sharing the information they gained about the animal they researched. They also discuss the plants and Native Americans they find in their environment.
2. During the Animal Safari and Scavenger Hunt, students visit other classrooms to view their camps and the murals. Their own camp is visited by three other classes.
3.  Parents are asked to volunteer to be camp counselors and see all of the work the students complete.

Assessment:

1.  Since this was a review activity, assessments had been given during the original teaching of these units. Assessment during this activity was purely anecdotal. Students did have checklists and worksheets to guide them through certain activities.

To see pictures from the unit, click on the camper.

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Unit designed by Amy DeWitt and Jody Longhill
Page created by Brooks Widmaier
June 2003