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 mermaids and the true story behind them!!! Read on to check out the learning fun!
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
Like unicorns and dragons, mermaids are also one of those mythical creatures that have captured the imaginations of so many! If your little one adores mermaids, they may be just as interested to learn a bit of history or mythology through the history and story of mermaids! On our mermaid learning day, we learned all about some stories about mermaids from other countries & cultures, watched some videos on what real creatures mermaids may have been mistaken for, and then finished off our day with some mermaid-themed science experiments and crafts!
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:
- Are Mermaids Real by Colossal Questions (3m)
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 used some mermaid cookies from our Sparkling Mythical Creature Cookies Bag to create a mermaid scene.
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!
- DK Mythical Beasts by Andrea Mills. This is also a great book with pictures and descriptions on several mythical creatures. There’s a page in here about mermaids as well.
- The Book of Mythical Beasts & Magical Creatures by Stephen Krensky. This is an excellent book filled with tons of information and pictures. There’s a page in here about mermaids as well.
- The Very Short, Entirely True History of Mermaids by Sarah Laskow. This one is similar to the “Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns” by the same author. It’s a great read for kids who are interested in mermaid history and historical stories!
- How to Catch a Mermaid by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton, This one we threw in for fun – it’s a picture book geared toward younger kids and part of the ‘how to catch..’ series.
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, MERMAID, SWIM, TAIL
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 were a mermaid who loved collecting shipwrecked human items! What items would be in your treasure trove? What would you call them and how do you think they’d be used in the human world?
- Imagine you were a scuba diver who happened upon an underwater mermaid kingdom. What would it look like? Would it be similar to our world OR completely different?
- Imagine you were a mermaid. Which two or three sea creatures would be your best friends and why?
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 craft of the day, we used some People-Shaped Wooden Craft Sticks, green felt, sequins, and yarn to create some mermaids!
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!
- You*niverse Mermaid Matter Lab. We found this nice little kit that has some science experiments you may have already done but these are all themed to mermaids! There are quite a few experiments in there, so you may want to pick just one or two for the day OR have a few mermaid days to fill up the week!
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!
