Camp Sunshine Day 1

Thinking back on my camp days, my poor mom never got a letter.  I was always too homesick to stay, and never made it long enough to send home a letter. If our preschool campers could write a letter home, I think they would say that it was a great 1st day of camp.  Here are some pictures from our super day at Camp Sunshine!

 The before picture!

Our happy campers started arriving bright and early this morning.  

Like all good campers, we first had to set up camp.  

We opened our sleeping bags and got our flashlights ready for a story under the stars.

Before we got started with the story, we explored with our flashlights.  

The children had many ideas as to what we could do with the lights. 

We light-wrote our names on the ceiling and made shadow puppets.  

Time for centers.  These fishermen are practicing hand-eye-coordination while trying to catch lunch!

We read stories and hung out in the camping chairs.

We explored fossils of some wild animals.  

Look at this amazing mountain that we built in the block center.

Snack time today was do-it-yourself trail mix.

Everyone followed the recipe, even when it was REALLY hard to take only 1 scoop of chocolate chips!

After snack we went on a bear hunt!

We played a fun memory game where while the campers "slept", a sneaky bear took 

a tool from the campsite.  Once the campers woke up, they had to figure out what was missing!

We made these precious campers, sleeping in their sleeping bags.

We closed our time together with songs by the campfire.  

Thanks a million to Mrs. Lauren for joining us with her guitar. 

Here is our version of the Campfire Pokey...

For this version we were cooking grilled cheese sandwiches.  

A Tiger for Tea???

On the last day of Lions, Tigers, and Bears summer camp, we read a precious story called 

A Tiger for Tea.  It is the story of what happens when a tiger stops by to surprise a mom and her little girl who were just sitting down for tea.  They do not have any tiger food, so they share what they have with him. The tiger was very  hungry and ended up eating everything in the house, including dinner!

In preparation for our tea party with a tiger, we got all dressed up!

Our fanciest clothes of course!

We almost wore ourselves out getting ready for this party!

 

First, we needed to set the table.

We spread the table cloths...

and put out the plates and napkins,

Soon we heard a knock at the door!

What do you know, it was a tiger!

We invited the tiger to join us for tea.  

We enjoyed pink lemonade and jelly sandwiches, that we made ourselves!

A fine time was had by all.  Our tiger was a much better visitor than the one in the book, thank goodness!

Caps for Sale!

Caps for Sale is a silly story about a peddler who is trying to sell caps.

He has a bad day in the village and ends up napping under a tree.  Little does he know that there are monkeys in the tree!

While he naps, antics ensure and the monkeys take all of his caps. Not to worry,

 the peddler gets his hats back, but the monkeys make him work for it!  

We decided to act the story out today at summer camp.  Our peddler did a great job!

Here he is trying to sell caps, but no one is interested...

Time for a nap under the tree...

Here come the little monkeys, sneaking up on the peddler.  

The sheer joy on their faces as they took hats was priceless!

Once the peddler woke up and figured out what had happened, he was angry.

He pointed his finger at the monkeys and told them to give him back his hats.  

The monkeys copied exactly what he did!

He stomped his feet, they stomped their's, he jumped up and down, and they jumped up and down. 

He threw down his cap, and what do you know, they threw down theirs!

Our polite little monkeys returned the caps to the peddler.

After a serious morning of acting, it was time for a jeep ride.

We saw all types of creatures on our journey, including 5 Little Monkeys that were teasing a crocodile!

It was a wild ride!

Tomorrow, we will have tea with a tiger!

A Trip to the Watering Hole

Today's visit to the watering hole allowed us to meet elephants, crocodiles, and a Big Wide-Mouthed Frog!

We used our super hand-eye coordination to catch butterflies as they flew out of the Elle-Fun!

Then we took turns counting how many we caught and identifying their colors.  

Elmer was by the far the funniest elephant we met today.  

 

We used small square sponges, dipped in paint to make our own patchwork Elmer's.

Time for a little dress-up!

Hope someone invites the tiger to tea on Thursday! 

These boys are hard at work in the block center,

making homes for the animals  I overheard great discussion there about habitats and 

what each animals needs to survive.    

We had fun singing and dancing with the 5 Little Monkeys and one wild alligator!

After our snack we went on an adventure.  We packed our backpacks with all of the necessities and loaded up in the jeep.  We got to this crocodile infested watering hole and had to be very careful as we crossed the bridge. 

Thank goodness we all made it!