With the summer sun shining through your classroom windows, you may be starting to feel the summer itch. This is the perfect time to take your students on a camping trip with these end of the year camping activities:

make a camper craft after reading A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee.
collect data with a yummy treat, Camper Crunch.
light up the year with a flashlight craft.

Classroom Camp Out Inspiration

In elementary school, one of my favorite end of the year traditions was having our classroom transformed into a campground.

In each classroom, the teacher arranged the desks and made old-fashioned forts with blankets and sheets.

Create a camping bulletin board to add to the end of the year camping theme

We dimmed the lights and brought our flashlights and read by the campfire. I also remember spending time in our blanket forts playing card games.

It always felt like we were already at summer camp. It was such a fun memory and something that my sister and I looked forward to every year!

Welcome your students into the camping classroom with a “Welcome Campers!” sign

Camp Learn-A-Lot

With much surprise from my students, Camp Learn A Lot appeared right in the middle of our classroom!

Our classroom turned into a forest campground fit with Evergreen trees, squirrels, and a moose. I used butcher paper to make the Evergreen tree and grass scene.

I created a welcome sign using old bed slats and stick on letters from Michael’s Craft Store.

My husband helped me pack the car with every lawn chair that I could find. The picnic table was the perfect addition for my students to sit and chat with friends.

I also dusted off the campfire rug that I had stashed away from my first classroom.

End of the Year Camping Classroom Transformation

Camp Out - Day 1

The first camping book that we read to kick off the week was A Camping Spree with Mr.Magee.

We thought about how Mr. Magee felt during the beginning of the story when he first set out on his camping spree.

Mr. Magee was so excited to go camping with his cute little dog! However, things quickly began to change for Mr. Magee. We thought about how his feelings changed when problems began to arise.

At the end, we completed a craft! (my students know that this is always my favorite part.) We cut out and glued together the pieces of Mr. Magee's camping trailer.

The students wrote about a place that they would like to go with Mr. Magee and why they would want to go there. One student hoped that his trip with Mr. Magee would have less mishaps and more camping fun!

Another class favorite was sitting around our campfire to learn and sing some poems that I wrote for us to learn throughout our short week together.

Camping Spree with Mr. Magee activities and craft

Camp Out - Day 2

On Wednesday, we read S is for S'mores. This book goes through each letter of the alphabet. Each page describes something new about camping for every letter.

At the end of the story, we made a list of our own camping words for each letter.

Each student got their own page to put into a class camping alphabet book. When we finished our class book, we had a S'mores treat called Camper Crunch.

My students counted all the ingredients from our Camper Crunch treat. They colored in their bar graphs to show how many of each ingredient that they had.

When they were finished with their bar graphs, they took a classroom survey to see which ingredient was the class favorite.

The craft of the day was a flashlight.

My students had fun picking out the colors of their flashlight. They wrote all about their brightest moments from this school year.

End of the year camping flashlight craft

Camp Out - Day 3

We read the story Olivia Goes Camping. After reading, we retold the story to remember how to have a successful camping trip.

The last craft of the school year was a disposable camera.

I showed my students some pictures from camp. They loved seeing what I looked like when I was younger! It was fun seeing their reactions and hearing their comments and questions.

I hope that our end of the year classroom camp out was as fun and memorable as my memories from school. It was so fun watching their dramatic play around the campfire during our last few days together. I know that I had a lot of fun with my students and I will continue the tradition year after year!