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 Bigfoot!! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all themed to Bigfoot!
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
Bigfoot is an extremely popular creature – real or not 🙂 Your little one has likely heard of bigfoot (it not seen in cartoons, pretended to be one, or cuddled with the adorable bigfoot Squishmallow, Benny)! If not, they have heard of its arctic cousin, the Yeti. If not, these sites are great introductions with kid-friendly facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
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:
- Could Bigfoot Be Real? | COLOSSAL QUESTIONS by Colossal Cranium (3m)
- Bigfoot: Is the Sasquatch real? by Live Science. This one is actually a webpage with a video.
- Could Bigfoot Really Exist by PBS (7m)
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 food snack of the day, we created some bigfoot footprints using some brown fruit & had a sugar bigfoot paw (bear paw)!
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!
The first one is a book we brought back from our intro day and revisited just the page on the bigfoot in each book. The last one is part of the What Is Series & perfect for kids who love reading non-fiction!
- 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 bigfoot as well.
- Looking for Bigfoot (Step Into Reading). This is one of those Step into Reading books that are great for early readers.
- What Do We Know About Bigfoot by Steve Kort. This is one of those What Is Series and is great for kids who are able to read a few chapters.
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, BIGFOOT, SASQUATCH
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 could be a Bigfoot for a day, what would you do?
- Imagine that Bigfoot and Yeti are related? What do you think a family reunion would look like?
- Secret Garden Sasquatch Silly Story Free Printable by Trend Enterprises. This one is a printable we found but couldn’t resist – it’s one of those choose your own words activity where the story sounds (or usually sounds) completely silly once you read it through!
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.
- Bigfoot Coloring Pages by Coloring Only
- How to Draw a Bigfoot Step by Step by How to Draw for Kids
- Bigfoot Sasquatch Cryptozoology Unfinished Wood Shape
- DIY Upcycled Bigfoot
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!
- Bigfoot Plus Plus Blocks
- Bigfoot’s Foot: According to Bigfoot by Britannica Kids, Bigfoot’s footprint was approximately 24 inches (60 centimeters) in size.
- Measure out 24 inches and see how big that would be!
- Assuming Bigfoot’s foot to height ratio is the same as yours, how tall do you think Bigfoot is?
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 Mythical Creature Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
