Welcome to our “Mythical Creature Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities all themed to oh-so-fascinating Mythical Creatures – Dragons, Unicorns, Mermaids, and More! For this day, we learned all about awe-inspiring dragons!!! After all, who doesn’t LOVE dragons!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Many kids are already super-familiar and incredibly fascinated with these magical creatures – dragons! If you’ve seen any of our other posts, you’d know this household is no different! So naturally, we had to have a few learning-fun days focused on these winged creatures!
We actually had two days devoted to dragons because they’re that AMAZING! We one day on fact finding: did dragons actually exist? Why are they found in stories from all over the globe? And another day on the ‘study’ of dragons – what types of different dragons are there, what are their characteristics, etc. All of our other activities were more generally themed to all things dragons 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Did DRAGONS Ever Exist? | COLOSSAL QUESTIONS by Colossal Cranium (2m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we picked a few familiar favorites from one of our dragon party food tables. There’s a ton to pick from if you ‘label’ the food in a certain way. Check out our other ideas here!
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
- Magic Tree House Fact Tracker – Dragons and Mythical Creatures by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
- Webpage: Dragons Don’t Exist, So Why Are They Everywhere? From allthatsinteresting.com
- Dragons by Keith Moseley
- Dragons 20 Mythical Monsters by L.J. Tracosas
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: MYTH, DRAGON, CREATURE, SCALES
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Imagine you’re a scientist / time traveler and traveled years into the past when people still believed in dragons. The fate of the universe rests in you telling them dragons don’t exist. How would you convince them dragons aren’t real?
- Imagine you’ve just returned from a magical realm and the tiny dragon you befriended followed you back to this regular world. How would you hide or disguise your dragon, so no one would know it was here?
- If you found a new type of dragon, what would it look like? Would it be scaly or have feathers? What would you name it?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we gave them a few options that would help them enhance their pretend play or add in some of what they learned:
- Paint-Your-Own Ceramic Dragon Craft Kit
- Dig it Up! Discoveries Dragon Eggs We purchased ours around Easter and they had a ton of single-dragon eggs. I can’t find them online but they were similar to this bulk package.
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
For the last two, they’re not specifically dragon experiments; however, with a few cleverly placed dragon figurines, they fit into the theme perfectly! (We’ve used them in one our Sizzling Dragon Party and all the kids loved them!)
- Flying Dragon Craft from theresjustonemommy.com
- Relighting a Candle – Without Using the Wick! From education.com
- Rising Water Secret Experiment from stevespanglerscience.com
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Dragon, Fairy, Mermaid, Unicorn, or Fantasy Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
