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 the elusive abominable snowman, also known as the Yeti!!! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all themed to the mysterious abominable snowman!
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
Some kids may or may not be familiar with this (perhaps?) mythical creature – the abominable snowman! If you need a bit of an intro, check out this article from kids.britannica.com: Abominable Snowman. This is a great site with kid-friendly facts, images, and related content! It’s a perfect brief intro for your little ones!
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:
- How to Catch a Yeti by Storytime Anytime (4m)
- Top 5 Freaky Facts About Yetis by WatchMojo (4m)
- The Crazed Hunt for the Himalayan Yeti by pbs (13m) also on youtube by Storied
OR if you’re looking for an entire movie, these lovable animations have abominable snowman characters!
- Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer – Who can forget the Abominable Snowman, Bumble, in this holiday classic?
- Monsters, Inc – Simply called, Yeti, the abominable snowman makes an appearance in the Monsters movies.
- Abominable – the most recent movie on the list (2019), the baby Yeti in this film is one of the main characters in this adorable film.
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!
You can do quite a bit with an abominable snowman treat. For our snack of the day, we had mini bagels and powdered sugar donuts with edible eyes 🙂 You could also create an Abominable Yeti Snack from thismamaloves.com if you have the ingredients available.
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! Below are a few we picked from:
- 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.
- Festive Yeti. This is a board book we picked up from the Dollar Tree. It’s short and cute – about a yeti celebrating the holidays with friends 🙂
- Jack Frost vs. The Abominable Snowman. This fiction book is a picture big geared toward younger kids that allow them to pick their own adventure 🙂
- Meet Yeti, the so-called abominable snowman that science yet again says is just a bear. This is webpage with some information on what an abominable snowman might actually be
- The Abominable Snowman (Choose Your Own Adventure) by R.A. Montgomery. This one is geared for slightly older kids (elementary age) but it’s fun if they like picking their own adventure!.
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, LEGEND, ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, YETI, MOUNTAINS, HIMALAYANS
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!
- If you found a Yeti while on a winter vacation, what would you do to get it to be your friend?
- Imagine you were a Yeti. What would be some of the ways you would hide in plain sight?
- If you were a Yeti who wandered into a city, what would you think common city objects would be for (like cars, buildings, traffic lights, etc)
- If you were a Yeti, why would you and your Yeti family avoid humans?
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:
- Toilet Paper Yeti – This one is easy, budget-friendly, & uses some upcycled materials! Click here for our step by step tutorial.
- Yeti Homebase – This one will let the kids’ imagination roam free! We purchased a Cryptozoology Toob for our mythical and magical creature week and used a number of the figurines for each day. The toob has an Abominable Snowman, so we gave the kids a few craft items (pom poms, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks) and let them create a wintery abode for their Yeti. 🙂
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!
- Yeti Plus Plus Blocks – This Yeti Construction Building Set is a perfect activity for little ones who love puzzles and building!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning 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 Mythical Creature Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
