Summer is one of my favorite seasons for slowing down, getting outside, and making learning feel extra fun and memorable for little ones. There’s just something magical about a camping theme for toddlers and preschoolers! Roasting pretend marshmallows, exploring nature, and reading camping books together turn everyday learning into an adventure. Whether you’re homeschooling, teaching in a classroom, or simply looking for playful summer activities to keep your little learners engaged, a camping theme is such an easy way to combine hands-on fun with meaningful learning. This camping Preschool theme is packed with Math, Literacy and Fine Motors practice!
Table of Contents – CLICK to jump ahead!
Anytime Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Camping Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our “anytime” sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the dry black beans we use in ours. Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra bug themed items like plastic letters, digging tools, colorful pompoms, printables from our camping preschool pack, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our camping preschool activities! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Camping Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Camping Preschool Theme Overview
This Camping Preschool theme is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 15 center-style activities to choose from – 5 Math, 5 Literacy and 5 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 camping theme picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
To use these printables, you can follow the PRE-MADE lesson plans for a week full of fun! Each of the 5 pre-planned days your students will have 1 read aloud, 1 Math activity, 1 Literacy activity, and 1 Fine Motor activity to work on. This is a great pace for little learners! But if you’d like to spread the activities out or rearrange them according your own child’s needs, simply print our provided Build-Your-Own Plans page and make your own plans!
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Math Activities
This set of printables has 5 fun Camping Preschool theme activities for practicing early Math skills. Children will practice number formation, number identification, counting, colors, and shapes. Our Preschool activities always include the use of small manipulatives for added fine motor skills practice!
One of my favorite camping preschool theme Math activities is the activity shown above! How could you NOT love counting when a fun treat like chocolate is involved?? To use this activity, children choose chocolate number cards from their sensory bin and use pieces of chocolate to build the correct amount on the 10 Frame.
10 Frames are an excellent way to give children a visual of numbers and how they’re made! In the example above, children can see the number 6 in several ways. First, the 10 Frame helps them see that 6 is made up of 5 and 1. This is a super gentle introduction to addition! They can also see that in order to make 10 with the number 6, they could add 4 more pieces of chocolate to the 4 empty spaces!
Literacy Activities
In addition to the Math centers, this set includes 5 early Camping Preschool Literacy activities! Children will practice skills like letter identification, letter formation, beginning sounds, and handwriting practice with bug theme vocabulary words!
Included in the Literacy printables from our camping preschool theme is the activity shown above. These letter tracing cards are a staple in all of our Preschool themes because they can be used in so many ways! First, children build the letters using small manipulatives from their sensory bin or play dough. Next, they can practice tracing the letters and working on letter formation and handwriting!
BONUS TIP: Extend this activity by discussing the sound each letter makes, and come up with words that begin with the sounds!
Fine Motor Activities
When working with little learners, strengthening fine motor skills is a must! Our 5 camping preschool theme fine motor activities will have your children working hard and having TONS of fun! They will practice scissor skills, mold using play dough, trace using manipulatives, and so much more!
An activity you’ll find included in this theme is our camping tents emotions matching mat! Children choose the emotion tent cards from their sensory bin and identify the match on the mat. Then with an adult or peers, children can identify the feelings represented on the tents and even discuss some times they have experienced these emotions.
And… I lesson planned FOR YOU!
This set of activities (and all of the other 45+ sets in our FULL Preschool Curriculum) include a full week of print and go visual lesson plans! It shows you exactly which books and printables to use each day for a 5-day school week, making lesson planning an absolute breeze!
Want to build your own? Or maybe your kiddos are ready for some of the activities but not all of them? That’s great! Use the included Build Your Own lesson plans page! These thematic centers were designed with growing learners ages 2.5 to 5 years old in mind, so this lesson planning page allows you to choose which activities your child is ready for right now!
More June fun!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our June Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes 4 engaging June themes (like Summer, ocean animals, and more!), complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP Summer themed fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 38 NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
PS This “monthly” curriculum is one of my favorites because the themes can really be used any time of the school year!!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Camping Theme Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
SAVE THIS POST FOR LATER!
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