Backyard Summer Camp: Things That Go Week

If your kids are fans of cars, trucks, trains, and planes, then this Backyard Summer Camp theme week is for them. There are plenty ideas to get you started here, plus have fun allowing your kids to come up with their own.

By the way, in case you've missed them, be sure to check out Wacky Sports Week, Under the Sea Week, Outer Space Week, In Our Neighborhood Week, Dinosaur Week, Messy Stuff Week, Games Week, Animals Week, and Pirates Week, too. Enjoy.

Things That Go

Active Play

• Backyard Car Wash. Materials: shaving cream (foam, not gel), toy cars, containers, a hose. Instructions:  for each child, fill a container with shaving cream for the car wash; fill a second container with water to rinse the cars. When the fun is done, hose everything off and leave them out to dry.
• Chalk Roadway. With sidewalk chalk on the driveway (or painter’s tape indoors), this is perfect for racing toy cars around.
• Marble Race Track.  PARENTS ONLY: Cut a pool noodle in half lengthwise with a serrated knife for instant marble race tracks. Add an empty box to catch the marbles at the end. 
• Wash the car! Grab a bucket and some sponges or rags, and let the kids go crazy. Be sure to lock the doors first to prevent your helpful little ones from washing the inside. (Yes, it’s happened.) If your kids are too young to wash the car, turn this into a field trip and drive the car through a car wash together.

Washing the real car...

..."washing" the toy cars.

Quiet Play

• Make box cars. (large boxes, paint) Although when we tried this, it turned into painting a vehicle onto a small box. Oh well; it was still fun!
• Make paper airplanes and race them.
• Clothespin Airplanes. Materials: clothespins, popsicle sticks, paint, glue. Check out the link for easy instructions. 
• Make and race bottle-cap sailboats. Materials: cap from gallon of milk; glue dot; toothpick; triangle of felt, paper, or foam, container for water. Instructions: Attach a triangle of felt, paper, or foam to a toothpick. Place a glue dot inside the bottle cap and insert toothpick into the glue. Fill a container about half-way with water and launch your sail boat. Older kids may want to try a milk carton sail boat.
• Make a counting maze or analphabet maze – kids can drive a toy car through the maze, following the numbers or letters in order.
• Paint with vehicles. Pour washable tempera paints onto paper plates; have kids drive through the paint with toy vehicles, then run the vehicles over paper to compare the tracks they make.
• Use Play-Doh to make your favorite things that go; or flatten Play-Doh and drive different toy vehicles over the dough to make tracks.
• Color-Sorting Parking Lot: use painter’s tape in a rainbow of colors to create a parking lot on the floor (alternatively, line up pieces of construction paper); gather toy vehicles and “drive” them to their appropriate parking space by matching the vehicle color to the tape (or paper).
• Make LEGO vehicles
• Read stories about cars, trucks, planes, trains, boats, etc.
• Write a story together about the fastest car ever. Let kids illustrate.

Painting box cars
...or painting cars on boxes.

Bottle-cap Boat Races

Closer look at the bottle-cap boat.

Painting with vehicles.

Play-Doh roads for toy cars.

Field Trips

• Visit the airport and watch planes take off & land.
• Play and picnic at a park near train tracks to watch for trains that pass by. (Rochester Area: Kings Bend Park in Pittsford, NY and Perinton Park in Fairport, NY each have train tracks on the perimeter)
• Attend an airplane show in your area.
• Visit a train museum or model train display. (Rochester Area: Visit the NY Transportation Museum and take aride on the trolley on Sundays only, or visit the Edgerton Model Railroad on the last Saturday of each month)
• Go for a walk along a nearby canal or river to watch the things that go. (Rochester Area: walk along the Erie Canal to see boats and kayaks)
• Go to the library for books about cars, trucks, planes, trains, boats, etc. Some examples: Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey-Rinker, Cars Galore by Peter Stein, Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo & Alex Ayliffe, Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton & Tom Lichtenheld, The Wheels on the School Bus by Mary-Alice Moore, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry, Thomas & Friends series by Rev. W. Awdry, Terrific Trains by Tony Milton, I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince, Bob the Builder series, Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen, and books by Kate & Jim McMullan: I'm Dirty, I'm Fast, I'm Mighty, I Stink.

We hope you enjoy your Things That Go Week! Be sure to Post a Comment with your favorite ideas for this theme. As always, thanks for reading.


P.S. If you like this post, check out Kids Birthday Party Idea: Race Cars for even more ideas.

Backyard Summer Camp: Pirate Week

We're in the home stretch of summer, so let's make the most of the next few weeks with some more Backyard Summer Camp theme weeks...

Ahoy mateys! Grab an eye patch, a bandana, some gold doubloons, and perhaps a sword (or a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper, as the case may be) and prepare yourselves for a swashbuckling adventure with plenty of opportunities to say, "Yo ho ho." Have fun with these Pirate Week suggestions, and coming up with your own!

By the way, in case you've missed them, be sure to check out Wacky Sports Week, Under the Sea Week, Outer Space Week, In Our Neighborhood Week, Dinosaur Week, Messy Stuff Week, Games Week, and Animals Week too. Enjoy.

Pirate Week

Active Play

• Have a Treasure Hunt. Make a map the night before - indoors or outdoors, depending on the weather forecast - while the kids are sleeping. Hide something fun for the kids to find – bubbles, punching balloons, etc. 
• Make a Pirate Fort with some chairs and bed sheets. Check out this Fort Round-up at the All For The Boys blog.  
• Canon Ball Toss! Use sidewalk chalk to draw a pirate ship for each player on the driveway or sidewalk; fill some water balloons. Have each player stand on their ship and play catch with the water balloons.
• Build a Pirate Ship. Grab a cardboard box (the bigger, the better), some paint, and any other embellishments you can find to make your very own pirate ship. Check out this post on At Home With Ali for some inspiration.  
• Make an Active Treasure Map! If your kids had fun with a regular treasure hunt, blow them away with this variation. Add instructions to any ol' treasure map: hop on one foot down the walkway, walk backward from the back door to the tree, do 10 jumping jacks by the swings, etc., plus add in some letter recognition. Head over to the ReadingConfetti blog for the how-to.
• Panning for Treasure. Fill a large bin or kiddie pool halfway with sand then water; hide treasure – craft store jewels, seashells, or fool’s gold – in the sand, then give each child a sieve to pan for treasure.

Treasure Hunt - we found a clue!

Quiet Play

• Make paper pirate ships & decorate them.
• Make a LEGO pirate ship.
• Make a Play-Doh pirate ship.
• Read stories about pirates.
• Go through the costume bin and dress like a pirate.
• Make a pirate snack! Create a Pirate Island using your kids' favorite veggies: corn for the sand, sugar snap peas for palm trees, zucchini slices for a hammock, and cherry tomatoes resting on the hammock. Yum!
• Write a story together about your adventures on a pirate ship. Let kids illustrate.

Pirate Island Veggies

Shiver me timbers!

Field Trips

• Visit the beach to dig for buried treasure (sea shells).
• Rochester Area: visit the Palmyra Pirate Weekend, August 9-10, 2013.
• Go to the library for books about pirates (e.g., Olive's Pirate Party by Roberta Baker, Follow That Map by Scot Ritchie, Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel, How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long & David Shannon, On a Pirate Ship by Sarah Courtauld & Benji Davies, Captain Abdul's Pirate School by Colin McNaughton, Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke, No Bath, No Cake!: Polly's Pirate Party by Matthias Weinert)

Aye aye, cap'n!

We hope you enjoy your Pirate Week! As always, thanks for reading.

Backyard Summer Camp: Animals Week

Backyard Summer Camp...Camp Mom...Keeping Them Busy...whatever you call it, this series is designed to provide some ideas to keep you and the kids busy with games, crafts, and field trips all focused around a theme for the week. These are a starting point; you and your kids can use your imagination and creativity to come up with your own ideas.

This week's theme is animals because almost every kid loves animals. Have fun with these suggestions, and coming up with your own!

By the way, in case you've missed them, be sure to check out Wacky Sports Week, Under the Sea Week, Outer Space Week, In Our Neighborhood Week, Dinosaur Week, Messy Stuff Week, and Games Week, too. Enjoy.

Animals Week

Active Play

• Animal Moves - take turns naming an animal, then everyone acts like that animal and makes that animal’s noise
• Backyard Safari - make a list with two columns; in the first column, ask the child(ren) to name all the animals you typically see in your backyard (or at the park, etc.) such as chipmunks, squirrels, deer, birds, etc.  Leave the second column blank to tally the number of each animal you see on your “safari.”  
• Feed the Animals/Bean Bag Toss – print a coloring page with a picture of your child’s favorite animal; secure to an empty cardboard box and cut a hole over/near the mouth; give your child a bean bag (or other soft object) as the “food” for the animal to throw into the animal’s mouth. Be sure the hole is large enough for the beanbag. 
• Zookeeper Says – Just like Simon Says, except the caller says things such as , “The Zookeeper says hop like a bunny,” “The zookeeper says walk like a crab,” or, “The Zookeeper says slither like a snake.” 
• Animal Obstacle Course – set up an obstacle course outside where kids can go over, under, around, and through anything you have on hand; the catch is that they must crawl on all fours, hop, or slither through the course. 

Backyard Safari (at the park)

Animal Obstacle Course

Quiet Play

• Pinecone Bird Feeders (Materials: pinecones, bird seed, peanut butter – or substitute seed butter for any allergies, plastic knives or spoons, string to hang the bird feeder)
• Popsicle Stick Animal Craft (Materials: craft sticks, paint, googly eyes, buttons for noses, glue, craft feathers, pipe cleaners, etc.) 
• Make animal sock puppets & have a puppet show
• Toilet Paper-Tube Farm Animals – paint toilet paper tubes and decorate with pipe cleaners, buttons, pom poms, shape stickers, markers, etc. to make your own farm. 
• Animal Tracks Painting – dip plastic toy animals into paint and make tracks across the paper; add background scenery with paint, markers, or crayons 
• Draw an Animal - Clip magazine photos of animal faces; adhere to paper and ask the child(ren) to draw the rest of the picture 
• Watch animal videos on http://www.sandiegozoo.org/videos
• Play animal games online 
• Make LEGO animals
• Read stories about animals
• Write a story together about what it would be like to have your favorite animal as a pet. Let kids illustrate.

Making LEGO Duplo Animals

More LEGO Duplo Animals

Field Trips

• Visit a zoo (Rochester Area: Seneca Park Zoo, or day trip to Buffalo Zoo or Syracuse Zoo)
• Visit your local humane society (Rochester Area: visit the barn, the walking trail of farm animals, and the domestic animals inside Lollypop Farm in Fairport, NY)
• Visit an animal sanctuary (Rochester Area: check out Wild Wings at Mendon Ponds Park in Honeoye Falls, NY: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, or Friday)
• Visit a local farm (Rochester Area: say, “Hi!” to the animals at Wickham Farms in Penfield, NY: Tuesday = $2 specials on mini golf; Friday = story time at 11 a.m.)
• Feed some animals (Rochester Area: feed the chickens, deer, sheep, goats, alpaca, pony, donkey, and rabbits at Powers Farm Market in Pittsford, NY)
• Go to the library for books about your favorite animals: The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen, The Underpants Zoo by Brian Sendelback, Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann, If You Give A…series by Laura Numeroff, the Pigeon books or Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems, or the Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney

Feeding goats at
Powers Farm Market

The lions at Seneca Park Zoo!

We hope you have fun with your own Animals Week this summer. Be sure to Post a Comment and let us know what activities you did. As always, thanks for reading!

Backyard Summer Camp: Game Week

I hope you have been having as much fun with this Backyard Summer Camp series as we are. My kids get pretty excited about picking a new envelope each week, and they are even coming up with their own ideas to add to our list. I love it! Of course, the list is just a starting point. It gets us going in the morning and then we go off on tangents. And the best part is: minimal whining. Yes!

Now, get ready for Game Time!

By the way, in case you've missed them, be sure to check out Wacky Sports Week, Under the Sea Week, Outer Space Week, In Our Neighborhood Week, Dinosaur Week, and Messy Stuff Week too. Have fun!

Games Week

Active Play

• ·      Life-Sized Angry Birds (Materials: cardboard boxes, Angry Birds coloring pages, water balloons, etc. Instructions: Select images of the pigs from the Angry Birds coloring pages and secure to a few boxes. Stack the boxes to look like the game and launch filled water balloons as the birds. Take turns trying to knock down all of the “pigs.”)
• ·      Play Twister outside
• ·      Play tag or freeze tag
• ·      FrisbeeTic Tac Toe (Materials: 9 frisbees or paper plates in 2 different colors; square blanket or tablecloth; duct tape to make the Tic Tac Toe grid on the blanket. Instructions: players throw their Frisbee or plate and try to get three squares in a row.)
• ·      Hang a felt “target” outside; cover balls with adhesive Velcro (you'll want the stiff side of the Velcro; not the soft side) and have kids throw to try and hit the target
• ·      HopScotch on bubble wrap ...or in the driveway with sidewalk chalk...or on the floor with painter’s tape
• ·      Life-sized Candy Land: use masking tape or painter’s tape to secure a variety of colored construction paper on the floor to make the game board. Use the cards from Candy Land to move to a certain color (be sure to use colored paper that matches the colors in the game), or roll dice and move that number of spaces. You could make up silly rules to add more movement to the game. For example, when a player lands on red s/he jumps three times, when a player lands on blue s/he barks like a dog, when a player lands on orange s/he touches his/her toes, etc. ECO-NOTE: Save the paper after your game! If you roll a piece of masking tape and place on the back of the paper to secure it to the ground, you can save it. The tape pulls off easily; just stack the paper and return to your craft supplies for future use. 

Life-sized Candy Land!

Quiet Play

• ·      Play board games
• ·      Set up a domino run
• ·      Make your own board game (large piece of paper or inside of a cereal box, paint, stickers, etc. - let the kids make up the object of the game and the rules!) 
•      Play online games, such as the games for kids in grades K-8 at funbrain.com
• ·      Make a game board out of LEGO bricks
• ·      Read books about games
• ·      Write a story together about playing your favorite game. Let kids illustrate.

Super-fun Domino Run

Field Trips

• ·      Go bowling (school-age children bowl one free game per day this summer at AMF lanes; check out kidsbowlfree.com)
• ·      Visit a local children's museum to play games (Rochester Area: check out the new Game Time exhibit at StrongNational Museum of Play)
• ·      Play video games at an arcade such as Chuck E. Cheese (Rochester Area: The Clubhouse in Henrietta, NY and Adventure Landing in Greece, NY are also kid-friendly)
• ·      Go to the library for books about games: Games: Traditions Around the World by Godfrey Hall, Games: From Dice to Gaming by Liz Miles, The Games Book by Huw Davies, Play These Games by Heater Swain, The Big Book of Games by Dorothy Stott, and Games Galore by Shari Ann Pence.

Giant-sized fun at the new
Game Time exhibit at
Strong National Museum of Play

Ginormous Battleship at
Strong National Museum of Play

Playing dominoes on
a larger-than-life domino

Giant light-up Connect Four

   

    We hope you enjoy your Game Week, and as always, thanks for reading.