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!!!

 



Camp Arrowhead Day One

Camp Arrowhead (aka one week of summer camp here at the day care) got off to a great start with happy and curious faces as each child walked in to a day care transformation.  I am lucky that they notice even slight changes to the décor in here so they REALLY noticed this!  Day one was full of surprises, from Miss Laurie blowing a whistle to signify a camp activity to lunch on the floor and a campfire during naptime. 

 

Our activities began with each child picking out feathers to go on their Camp Arrowhead head bands and also gluing on a "happy camper" badge.  The head band will be used during the week to add badges to as they earn them.  Some badges are easily earned and others they have to work at. 

 

 

Next, our day took us to the great outdoors for bird watching and to earn the bird watching badge!  I stapled toilet paper rolls together and added some yarn to each one.  I have talked about birds to these kids since they walked through my door... it's just one of my "things".  So each child can identify a few and some, more than a few species.  They walked around the day care yard using their binoculars to spy birds and call them out to me... which makes me proud. 

My oldest said "I spotted a cowbird... Hey a robin!"

Another said "I see one with white on his belly!"

One of my four years olds was walking around making bird caws trying to call 'em in.

My girl said "I see a black bird!"

Then the oldest said "Bird watching is kinda hard... but it's kinda easy too."

 

The reference guide to what they were spotting.

Their bird watching badges.

 

After bird watching badges were on I whipped out their brown bag lunches from the fridge.  We pretended there was a storm outside by listening to thunder and rain on my sound machine and all huddled onto a tablecloth with ferns on it spread out on the floor.  Sack lunches are not the norm around here.  They had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, grapes, a small dessert and a juice box... which is definitely not the norm here. 

 

 

After the "storm" we cleaned up and drug out the nap mats/sleeping bags.  I then blocked out as much light in the playroom as I possibly could with blankets, turned the sound machine on "night sounds" that sound like crickets and brought out the tea light filled campfire to a unison of awes.  The nap mats were circled around the fire and when everyone one was settled in staring at the stars taped to the ceiling, and instead of normally watching a television show while I clean lunch dishes, I sat down amongst them a read a scary story which luckily wasn't scary at all besides the voices I added to it. 

 

 

Our snack after nap time was a bit different than normal too.  I tried a different take on S'mores by using Golden Graham cereal, milk chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.  I liked it although it was incredibly sweet and the kids liked it only some liked some of the ingredients more than others and just ate which ones they wanted to.  It was worth a try.

 

 

After snack and once everyone was dressed in swimming clothes and the whistle blew indicating an event, we were all outside and Miss Laurie brought out the water balloons for a old fashioned balloon toss.  I only filled enough balloons to fit in a large pot that I have but they quickly burst away onto soaked little heads.  So after the toss we played in the sprinkler for a little bit. 

 

 

Everyone was dried off and changed back to normal when moms and dads arrived at the end of our first day of camp.  We made a lot of stories to be told on the way home I am sure.  The kids were pretty excited about all of the activities I had planned for them.  On to Day 2!