Welcome to our “Awesome Amphibians Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to amphibians: frogs, salamanders, newts, & more! For this day, we focused on both amazing axolotls! Read on to check out ideas on books, snacks, writing prompts, crafts, stem activities, & more!
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
If your little one is an amphibian expert OR a major minecraft fan, they may already be familiar with these super-cool & amazing amphibians – axolotls! They’re adorable salamanders that seem to keep their “child-like” features, which sets them a bit apart in appearance from their other types of salamanders!
- Mexican Axototl by kids.nationalgeographic.com/
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:
- The Axolotl Salamander Doesn’t Wanna Grow Up by pbs.org (4m)
- Axolotl Facts: the PETER PAN Salamander by Animal Fact Files (4m)
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!
- Axolotl! By Susan Mason
- Dewdrop by Katie O’Neill
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: AMPHIBIAN, AXOLOTL, FINS, 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!
- If you saw an axolotl for the first time, what would you think? Does it look like some of the other amphibians you’ve learned about?
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, found a Printable Pixel Paper Axolotl Craft by pixelpapercraft. It’s an axolotl based upon the minecraft world. It does take a bit of precision cutting, so if you have a little on you might want to print out a larger version of the image and/or help them cut. There’s also a nice, short video tutorial linked on the page as well.
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 our stem activity of the day, we found one a cute lego minecraft set with some mini axolotls: LEGO Minecraft The Guardian Battle 21180 Building Kit. The axolotls are pretty small and aren’t the centerpiece of the set but the lego set was still super fun for the kids to put together.
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 Animal-Themed Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
