Welcome to our day dedicated all to Atlantis, the Lost City!!! While many kids may be familiar with “Atlantis” because of some popular cartoons and movies, they may not be familiar with the history or the real life searches for this lost city. So, we decided to spend a day learning all about it! Read through to check out our activities!
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
Atlantis has popped up in several cartoons, movies, and even amusement parks… BUT it may be possible that your little ones may not know how the story came about. If you need a refresher or want some quick and easy reads, we used the Atlantis article from https://kids.britannica.com/ which gives a great summary. If you’re looking for some lesson plans and ideas, the Lost City of Atlantis – Primary Resource page from National Geographic Kids gives some great suggestions and worksheets.
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 ‘Lost’ City of Atlantis by Colossal Mysteries (4m)
- Legend of Atlantis by National Geographic (47m)
- Disney’s Atlantis The Lost Empire
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!
While no one really knows what Atlantians ate (if they were actually alive to eat anything), an island or water themed snack works perfectly for the Atlantis theme. For our snack, we had a classic favorite – goldfish 🙂 To make a more sunken themed snack, you can use a blue plate and use some greens (cucumbers, grapes, apples) to create some seaweed and plant structures 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. 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! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- Dk Readers: Atlantis the Lost City? By Andrew Donkin. This is a great book with nice pictures – perfect for little ones who are getting a bit better at reading on their own. If they’re still on the early reader side, this would be a great book to read to them.
- What Do We Know About Atlantis? By Emma Carlson Berne. This is part of the What is series. They’re always great, filled with facts and tidbits. They are fairly lengthy for young readers though (there’s a few chapters), so this is best for children who are able to read a few chapters.
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: MYTH, LEGEND, ATLANTIS, POSEIDON
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 are living a long time ago when Atlantis was still alive and vibrant. Describe a day in your life.
- Imagine you were scuba diving on vacation and discovered Atlantis! What piece did you discover first and what do you imagine it was used for?
- Do you think Atlantis is real? Why or why not? What evidence would you collect so that you can prove it’s real?
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 had them create their version of Atlantis using some figurines from the Mythical Realms Toob. We gave them a few other craft supplies to pick from: rocks, sand, pipe cleaners, construction paper.
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 ‘science’ activity of the day, we asked them to design something that would help them search for proof that Atlantis may have existed. We ended up with a few submarines, make-shift drones, and some science-fiction-y type gadgets 🙂
THANK YOU!!!
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Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
