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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Help! Can You Guys Give Me Ideas For Summer Camp Activities?
permanentvacation 05:44 AM 02-28-2017
I need ideas for activities for a summer 'camp' type of program for ages 2 - 12 (especially for the school agers) that are FREE or as close to free as possible. Can you guys help me and give me ideas?

Thanks!
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EntropyControlSpecialist 11:43 AM 02-28-2017
I do 2 weeks of "Summer Camp" with my preschoolers every year. We do it as a way to cool off come summer and give us all a break from curriculum.

I give them paint and paintbrushes to paint their bodies one day (they hose off afterwards and no the pink/red paint doesn't come off well...they look sunburned with patterns LOL). We do many days with sprinklers, hoses, ice cubes in water, water tables, etc. in bathing suits. We do a day where we paint the entire sidewalk (and then sprinklers after). We do water balloons and spray bottles (be sure to get little ones...the big ones are too heavy and break easily, oops!).
All of these are so low cost or free.
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Ariana 01:48 PM 02-28-2017
I always do themes in the summer. I am not a theme type but it helps the summer go by so fast.

9 weeks to the summer, come up with 9 themes and then activities to do with those themes. If the kids are with you now get them in on the brainstorming, especially the older ones. Some themes I have done (and keep them as broad and general as possible so you can do tons of stuff) are: Water, camping, pirates, food, art, sports, animals, science, music etc.
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Mike 02:15 PM 02-28-2017
I agree with Ariana. Ask the school agers for ideas. Kids can come up with some ideas we would never think of.
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thrivingchildcarecom 10:10 AM 03-01-2017
We do waterplay Fridays throughout the summer. Where we live it's super hot and we have to do the water play usually in the morning hours. But the kids love it! It also helps them to sleep better at naptime. I look forward to it every week. You can also build upon it by talking about sea animals, turning water play into a car wash, the possibilities are and less.
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hwichlaz 12:20 PM 03-01-2017
I do a water play week and a camp out week. For camp out week I set up my camping tent, and we have a pretend camp fire, and our lunches are camping and picnic type foods.
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Sumshine 08:12 AM 03-02-2017
For the older kids I suggest Minute to Win It games! You can pick up tons of stuff from the dollar store that can be used for multiple games and a lot of the stuff is just hanging around the house! My friend has done this for her SA daughter's birthday parties 3 years in a row now and the kids love it! You can do a weekly Minute to Win It game and challenge the older kiddos to beat their times daily in this weeks game!
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Pestle 12:17 PM 03-02-2017
Is there an area you're knowledgeable in that you can use as a theme? For instance, I'm working on unit study concepts for my daughter, and she takes after her dad in an interest in astronomy. There are so many astronomy-themed directions for so many age levels--memorizing the planets, drawing a scale model of the solar system with chalk, threading punched black cardstock to make constellations, etc.

I have a lot of education and experience in design, so I do art--serious art. Even little ones get really into color mixing, identifying familiar shapes in a book of art prints, identifying landscapes vs. still life vs. portraits, learning the correct way to hold, use, and clean a brush, etc. I just took a series of photos of some of our geometric solids, on a small table in a darkened room, with light streaming in from a gap in the curtains. I rotated the table 45 degrees for each photo so the shadows changed. I'm going to print and laminate the photos so we can discuss light sources in art. Because this is an area of expertise for me, it doesn't need too much prep in advance and I'm already familiar with required materials and can anticipate how much challenge the activities will pose for various age groups and how much time they'll take.
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Josiegirl 03:40 PM 03-02-2017
Science activities! They're usually pretty cheap and mostly need basic supplies; all kids love them and go ooh and ah over the results. Check pinterest for specific ideas!

Hi PV; Hope you're doing well!
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permanentvacation 06:27 AM 03-04-2017
Thank you all for your ideas!
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Unregistered 12:48 PM 03-05-2017
Water table is set up outside all summer.

We do themes....keeps me from going insane! They are low key and fun!

Rock painting-I have flat landscape rocks available most of the summer they love to paint them. We do this outside.

Bubble week

Watermelon week

Strawberry week-strawberry scented play doh made with strawberry kook-aid, prints made with those green plastic berry baskets, lots of other fun things. Paint a strawberry shape with red kool aid sprinkled on strawberry shape, etc.

Ice week-we make ice cream in a bag, I freeze large blocks of small i
Toys and put it in the water table, we make juice pops,etc.

Root Beer week- we make root beer cake and make root beer floats and root beer playdoh!

Sand week-permanent sand castles=sand mixed with cement and water with jewels, sequins, sticks, flags, etc. done outside

I always make mummy's with school age kids....heavy duty tin foil, child lays flat on floor, foil is folded back and forth, crimped along the way to stay together. You pull it off and hang them in the playroom.....so cool.


We do about two to three things each week and read books that go with the theme. It's very relaxed and fun!

We kook-aid paint a lot-dry unsweetened kook-aid sprinkled on paper, then kids paint with water..bright and smells so good!

We have bubble buckets and large dollar store wands out all summer.

I set up a play shop coffe shop.....low table, plastic tea pots, plastic play fruit, plates, mixers, spoons, I save reall creamer cartons, I have large bowls of water to fill coffee pots, creamers, etc. sand can be use for sugar, honey bears, etc. they will play for hours.

Baby bath.....low table, I have a real baby bath tub, baby wash cloths from $ store, rubber duckies, empty shampoo bottles, dolls, bars of real ivory soap, etc. they will play for hours !

Soap factory! Lots of Empty soap pumpers with a little soap in them filled with water, foaming ones are great! Bowls of water, whisks, I cover the table with rubber shelf liner so pumpers don't slip, smaller bowls to pump into, etc.

All summer I have real but cheap paint brushes for painting walks, buckets of water, and sidewalk chalk out. They love to paint the sidewalk and draw in it with chalk.

I got a free water canal last year! Great hit!

My school agers will make god's eyes all summer. I use variegated yarn.

We are outside a lot but do the cooking inside...things like printing with berry baskets, playdoh, are inside too.
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Unregistered 12:51 PM 03-05-2017
I noticed it says kook aid not kool aid a few times! Haha!
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Unregistered 01:02 PM 03-05-2017
Oh, for coffee shop I save empty spice containers and vanilla bottle to use with it.

I've done a flower soup kitchen, bowls of petals and flowers from my yard, big bowls of water, spoons, empty spice containers, Of course outside.

Wish I could post a picture! Have never figured out how to post a picture from my iPad to this site. Maybe I have to be signed in I can't remember my password! I'm on another forum that's formatted exactly the same way and I can post there!
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Josiegirl 09:46 AM 03-07-2017
Love the ideas you've given her. I'm going to borrow some of them. The 9 yo dcb and I were discussing the idea of making every week be a different 'theme'. As suggested already so far we've deciding on camping, bubbles, water play, space, science, strawberry week(love that idea but we might make it fruit week ). That'll take 6 weeks, hmmm...maybe a back to school week towards the end but I still have to find 1-2 more ideas that we can draw lots of activities from, that would be fun for all. Maybe a pet week.

Lots of gardening sprinkled through out.
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Tags:summer - crafts, summer - curriculum, summer - field trips, summer - garden, summer - outdoor fun
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