Camp Arrowhead Day Four

Our fourth and last day of summer camp at the day care was sure a fun one.  I wanted to squeeze in all of the plans for other days that didn't happen but as it turns out they didn't all happen on this day either.  Things like tug-of-war, clothespin drop and a trip to the creek.  Maybe next year.  We did manage to have a pretty full day as it was.  After everyone arrived we met in the craft room and made popsicle stick picture frames.  My plan for the afternoon would incorporate these.  They are very simple and do need time to dry.  I had the kids lay out their popsicle sticks in twos and we held them together with masking tape then put a generous dab of glue at the top of two and then the bottom of the same ones and laid the other stick pairs on the glue.  We used q-tips and mod podge for the glue.  That's it really.  Now we wait for them to dry and we all headed outside for a bit of free play.

 

 

For our last picnic lunch of camp we took a vote and decided to hike up the driveway to a set of trees in the corner of the sunflower field.  I had already packed up their sack lunches of ham and cheese sandwiches, Pringles chips, green grapes and two powdered doughnuts for desert along with the last of the drink boxes.  We had a lovely lunch in the shade and afterwards the kids treasure hunted under the trees and found several things to fill their pockets.  We headed back and all settled in for our last bedding down around the campfire as I read one more scary story.  I wish I had read this one before because I had to change the ending once I got to it to something a bit less scary, or maybe less real, for them.

 

 

 

When everyone woke I had plans to make microwave s'mores that turned out to be very good but very messy!  What's wrong with gettin' a little messy?  Not a thing!  As we were finishing our snacks someone arrived to pick up a couple of my boys so we didn't get to hand out their badges. :(  I did take their pictures for their frames and promised they would be ready for them on Monday.  SO we had the badge ceremony with the other children and their faces smiling as I reminded them what they had done to earn their badges of being Good Helpers and Good Listeners during story time and Washing Hands without being asked.  They were all so proud.  I got pictures and began printing them for frames as another Mom arrived.  Sounds like I wasn't ready for camp to end! 

 

I had decided to print out labels for the frames instead of using a marker because all of my test runs had ran into the wood.  So I glued on titles for their frames and really liked how they turned out.

 

 

After everything was semi-cleaned up from snack and pictures, we headed outside to a humid afternoon and a battle of water guns for our summer camp finale!  There were just a couple of us left there but it was total fun.  I had one of the boys quoting Eastwood and stations set up to hide behind with buckets of water for ammo refills.  A very fun ending to a very fun week of camp with these kids! 

 



Camp Arrowhead Day Three

Day three of summer camp, Camp Arrowhead, began with one of my pre-kindergarteners coming in so excited that he had practiced his ABCs overnight and finally had the song down.  Shaun just happened to be here when he proudly sang the tune without a hiccup on any letters!  THIS display earned him the ABC star badge for his head band!  We are working on two more boys here possibly earning their badge tomorrow.  So proud of those guys!

 

Our morning craft was a good one.  After seeing the campfire I had made to use for camp all week, the kids were tickled to learn that they would be making their own campfires today and earning a campfire badge to boot!  We painted thick paper plates black and painted four toilet paper and paper towel rolls (p.t. cut in half) a few shades of brown and black to resemble fire wood.  I hot glued the sticks in place and the kids learned how to smush tissue paper just so that it looks like flames.  I hot glued the flames in also.  Tomorrow, since Kroger ran out of the flicker tea lights, the kids will get to take their campfires home with one tea light in the middle to use at home. 

 

 

 

 

Lunch time was had inside today.  The kids asked if we could pretend thunderstorm again so that's what we did.  This time however, we brought out the campfire and I cooked hot dogs in the microwave that afterward we put on forks and pretended to roast them over the fire.  They really liked that... the kids that is.  We also had grapes and chips with mini marshmallows for dessert that one pretty smart kid put on the tines of his fork and pretend roasted them too!  That's a lot of pretendin' going on!

 

 

After nap and a cheese and cracker snack everyone heard the activity whistle blow!  They came running and were advised to put their shoes on cause we were going outside.  I had found online and printed out copies of insect bingo.  I decided to simply use the bingo cards as guides because it had great pictures of lots of insects.  I handed out the sheets and a crayon to each and we headed out to see what we could find.  We hunted and pointed and "Hey look" 'ed until we got pretty hot, this being a very humid afternoon, and decided to head back inside and get ourselves some water while we compared notes on what we found.  Everyone was excited to tell about which insects they had seen and everyone earned an insect badge for participating in a successful hunt!

 

 

 

Day three is at a close and it's been a good one although the campers seem restless to do their own thing.  After one more day of sack lunches I am sure they will be ready for green beans and chicken nuggets next week.  They're just like that.  We only have one more day because everyone will be here that day.  I don't have as many on Friday and most would have missed out on the camp closing badge ceremony!  I am tired but getting a little sad to see the week come to a close.  On to day four!!

 

 



Camp Arrowhead Day Two

Day two of summer camp at the day care began with a dousing of bug spray, some sunshine, a long walk accompanied by a scavenger hunt.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn't have along during the walk.  My niece came to help so I was a tad braver to take a bunch of kids on a different trek.  We went down the driveway, towards the house, then made a right across the field of sunflowers and millet blooming beautifully.  We made it along the other side of the field and over to the bed and breakfast area that my father-in-law has.  The kids had their sacks with a list of pictures taped to the front of items to look for.  Every few steps it seemed someone would holler "I found a stick in a Y shape" or "Look! I found something green!"  We saw a good sized lizard and Gary's two puppies and headed back across the field to the driveway, made a left and tracked back towards the day care.  Truly we weren't gone but about forty minutes.  When we got back, we sat one the back porch and each child, one at a time, pulled out the contents and treasures found and told each one what they had found.  One of them, after showing everything, reached back in his bag and said "Oh, I forgot about this cricket!"  Sneaky boy!

 

 

After sacks of treasures were stored in cubbies to go home :) , we had one more activity before lunch.  I brought out some necklace thread, some wooden beads and some arrowhead courtesy of my friend Barb of Skywalkflutes (thanks Barb!) and made our Camp Arrowhead necklaces!  I had already made loops on the arrowheads with wire so they were ready to go.  The kids added beads and we tied them on to happy kids. 

 

 

Another sack lunch for day two that included a "lunchables"type theme.  We had round crackers with sliced of cheese and bologna for do-it-yourself sandwiches, sliced apples and fruity marshmallows for dessert.  Today we decided to eat our lunch outside on the play ground under the trees.  I wanted to make a make-shift tent from sheets on the swing set to eat underneath but the wind prevented me from this.  Maybe another day.

 

 

 

 

Naptime was once again a darkened playroom with a lit campfire and a semi-scary campfire story.

 

My niece took this picture of me reading and most of the kids asleep already. 

 

After naptime, I had one more activity planned.  I had previously cut out arrowheads from cardboard and on our scavenger hunt walk, I gathered sticks.  Each child got to paint their arrowhead a mix of gray and silver.  When they dried, I called each child into the craft room and let them pick out a stick and a couple of feathers and tied the arrowhead and feathers to the chosen stick to make a spear.  I actually had another game planned for the afternoon but after all this, and gluing on another badge to head bands for the spear, the kids wanted to play with their spears outside so I let them.  They played until parents began arriving and got to take their spears, scavenger hunts bags and arrowhead necklaces home with them. 

 

I made my prototype during naptime. 

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to make sure a craft is going to work!

Luckily it did.



I am in love with this picture!

 

 

Whew... what a day.  On to day three!!!