In this week’s Summer Camp at Home post, we’re traveling Around the World, with 5 days of activities to keep your kids entertained!
Day 1 – Map Art
Before you can travel, you’ve got to know where you want to go! So, on the first day of the week, work on creating a map.
- Have your child color and/or decorate the map.
- Work together to label continents and bodies of water.
- When they are done, you can hang it up some place visible for the week.
Here is a link to a free download, or below you’ll find links to items you can purchase from Amazon.
You can also create a passport using this free template.
To end the day, ask your child one place they’d like to “travel” to this week. Once you find out where they’d like to go, plan Friday’s day around the place they picked.
Day 2 – First stop, Africa
On day 2, start your trip around the world by visiting Africa!
- Start by making a map of Africa. You can you use this printable. Have your child color it in, then help them the countries, biomes (dessert, grasslands, rainforest) and the Nile River.
- Move on to learning about animals that live in Africa. In Nat Geo’s Big Book of Animals, you can find animals arranged by habitat.
- Then, head over to explore.org and find their section dedicated to African Wildlife. You can do a scavenger hunt for animals you seen in the Nat Geo book or you can just watch the animals enjoy their natural habitat. Visit the watering hole to see hippos, gators and more. Or, head to the Elephant park and watch for the herd. As you are seeing animals, talk with their children about what animals they are seeing, what those animals eat, etc. If you have older kids, have them Google and research each animal as you see them.
- Break up the learning by taking a break to play a traditional African game. Here’s a list, with instructions of some traditional games African children enjoy.
- Make an African art or craft project. Here’s a link to some ideas.
- End the day with a book about African folk tales and/or a movie based in Africa. The book below by Nelson Mandela got reviews. Then, here’s a list of a few movies that the kids might enjoy.
Movies based in Africa
- The Lion Kind
- White Lion
- Madagascar
- Tarzan
- Prince of Egypt
Day 3 – We’re going down under to visit Australia
- Start by printing and coloring a map of Australia. Here’s a printable. Hang on to your map and fill in the bottom at the end of the day!
- Next, talk about the different animals you can find in Australia. Here’s a print out to help.
- Head over to Webcam Taxi and see a Dingo at the zoo.
- Pick one or more of these Australian themed arts and craft projects.
- Talk about the Great Barrier Reef and watch this video from Nat Geo that helps you learn more about the area or watch this video with easy fun facts about the reef. Then talk with your kids about what they saw!
Day 4 – Head to Italy
This site has some amazing activities for learning about Italy. The author maps out enough ideas that could take you through a few days if you wanted to extend your “trip to Italy” beyond a day. Here’s a link to the site.
I highlighted some of my favorites ideas below.
Learn how to give an Italian greeting in 3 minutes.
Go exploring and visit some of Italy’s most famous sites like the, Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Then learn about the Gondolas!
Make an Italian flag and explain what each of the color represent.
- Green = hope
- White = faith
- Red = charity
Make a homemade pizza for lunch and enjoy!
Day 5 – Free Choice
For Day 5, we left it up to the kids to choose their final stop. Wherever they picked, follow these simple steps to come up with activities for the day.
- Print and color a map.
- Find arts and crafts projects themed around the location. Pinterest is a big help with this!
- Search YouTube and Nat Geo for videos.
- Do a Google search for children’s games in the region you’re talking about.
- Find a book, movie or food to wrap up the day!
You can also search Pinterest for lessons pertaining to the area your child asked to visit and you’ll be able to find a lot of ideas there too.
