Welcome to our “Turtle-riffic Turtle Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to oh-so-adorable turtles! For our first day, we talked about what they knew about turtles (and tortoises) and introduced some basic characteristics of turtles.
Like most of our at home camp weeks, we kicked off the week by easing into the topic. We started off with setting up the camp area with some decorations! And, like all days, we added in some interesting books and some writing / storytelling prompts to keep them learning! Read on to check out the fun!
INTRO
Most children have already heard of or seen a turtle, some may even have them as pets 🙂 Since this was Turtle Week, it’s only natural to start with what a turtle is 🙂 And if you just want some quick intro or facts, take a look at these:
- Turtles by Britannica Kids
- 10 Totally Awesome Facts About Turtles by National Geographic Kids
- Turtle Facts for Kids by Kiddle
- Explore the differences between turtles and tortoises by Britannica
Once we did our intro, then it was off to setting up the camp area – always a fun activity – and reading, writing, crafting, and experiments!
DECORATE THE CAMP AREA
Decorating the ‘Camp Area’ or the room / area of your house where you’ll have most of your activities is a great way to get the kids excited about the theme of the week! If they’re incredibly crafty and creative, having some extra and opened-ended crafts would be great to keep them engaged. Otherwise, a prepared activity would work well!
If you’ve got any stuffed turtles or other Turtle items, then bring them out to ‘enjoy’ Turtle Week!
For our camp decoration, we created a ‘seascape’ by hanging up a blue table cover on the wall. Then we decorated it with some Giant Mosaic Turtle Sticker Scenes as well as some flowers and seaweed (green tissue paper).
WEEKLONG PROJECT
For our weeklong project, we continued to update our “Turtle Wall” by adding in images or colored pictures of turtles as we moved along each day!
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). Here are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Turtles! Turtle Facts for Kids by KLT Wild (2m)
- Turtle Time with Dr. Turtleman! by SciShow Kids (4m)
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 revisited a favorite that we snacked on for our Archelon Day– homemade turtles 🙂 They’re extremely simple to make (especially using the ingredients that we picked – Sea Salt Caramels, Ghirardelli Melting Chocolate Wafers, and pretzels). This 3 ingredient version doesn’t contain any nuts & the caramels are soft enough to mold with melting, so it’s quite simple 🙂
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:
- All About Turtles by Jim Arnosky. Short picture book with facts about all types of turtles.
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: TURTLE, SHELL, SEA
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 but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Do you have a favorite type of turtle? Which is it and why?
- If you could be a turtle for a day, what would you do?
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 picked a small Turtle Build Kit. Mini Blocks are MUCH smaller than regular Legos, but the concept is similar – blocks fit into each other to create a shape. This one is great for kids who are little older and can manage the smaller blocks.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun 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 Turtle Week Posts or Turtle Ideas, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
