Summer day camp ideas for 4 year old?

Question

I would like to send my daughter to a couple of half day camps this summer but finances are limited right now. I thought I would come up with some weekly themes and ideas of my own and we could have our own summer camp for a couple hours based on a weekly theme. Does any body have any ideas to help me out? Here are some of the ideas I have come up with: Nature Camp: pick, press and dry some flowers and leaves and put them into a picture frame which we have decorated, take a nature hike and look for birds and animals, make plaster casts of animal footprints. Art Camp: spread a large piece of paper on the ground outside and use your body to paint a giant picture, cut pictures out of a magazine and make a collage, make beads out of modeling clay of some sort, paint them and make jewelry, use an old digital camera to take pictures, print them out and make a book or something to display her photographs. Sports camp: visit local ice rink, swimming, I need help with this one! Other ideas?

Answer 1

Remember that the Summer Olympics are happening this year.  Pick out different sports from the Games and let her pretend to be one of the athletes.  Make a torch out of a piece of construction paper, rool it into a cone, and glue it.  Then, glue crumpled up red, yellow and orange tissue paper to the top to make the flame.  Cut holes into 5 paper plates and color them (in some way) each of the colors of the Olympic Rings.  Cut a slit into one side of each so you can link them together properly.  Then, tape them closed.  You can add a piece of string from the top and hang them up.

Have a Field Day.  Invite the kids in the neighborhood to have dfferent types of races, juming contests, etc.  Prior to the event, she can make the medals with glitter and ribbon over a circular sheet of construction paper.

Answer 2

That is a great idea!! How about get some other mums involved and plan it together. The children will have the company of each other and you will have the company and shared resources and ideas of the other mums. It would keep you motivated and also could be the start of some great summers and friendships for you and your daughter. Tedy bears picnic is an idea that just sprung to mind, putting on a puppet show/a play/ a dance... you have so many ideas already its great - your daughter will love whatever you do because you are putting so much thought into her special summer experience its lovely. Getting more mums involved could be fun to.

Answer 3

You have a great start there!  Take her to different places to see community helpers - maybe the fire department of EMS.  I run a summer camp one week a month for 3, 4 and 5 year olds and we have teddy bear day on EMS day so they can put bandaids on their teddy bears and bandages and all.  Insects are great for the summer, beach themes, sunshine, reptiles.  We making a huge car wash out of a dryer box with streamers and having a bicycle day, recycling, 4-H Jr. Leaders, there are so many ideas out there. Just go for it and take lots of trips to the park - she will find will find things you will never dream of and just let her explore at her own pace.

Answer 4

just get them to do something creative.

Answer 5

ok...you're off to a good start but you need to keep it simple and somewhat consistant. Start with a daily schedule...

Then come up with weekly themes...keep it simple...like...

*Farm

*Sports/Olympics

*Under the Sea

*Pets

You can do weekly theme trips

*Farm- strawberry picking at a local farm or visit horses

*Sports/Olympics- Organize a Play Day (local park)-  and have an Olympics theme

*Under the Sea- Vitit your local aquarium

*Pets- Visit your local pet store

- designate one day a week (every Wednesday)for special outings

Incorporate crafts in your daily schedule. Best time...9:15 am immediately after circle time. Get children all excited about your weekly theme through discussion in your 9am morning circles every day! Craft examples include:

*Farm- pre cut out farm items...animals, barn, cut paste, use lots of variety in materials such as cotton to glue onto a lamb or sparkles to brighten a farm related painting activity

*Sports/Olympics- tonnes on line...coloring sheets, educational age appropriate worksheets you can just download and print.

*Under the Sea- blue sparkles, pre cut fish, octopus, whales etc.... child can just glue. Lots of ideas for this theme on line too. It depends on the materials you have available to offer.

*Pets- you can do a "build a bear" for this activity. Kids of all ages love this.

I also recommend that you have a camera handy and take at least 10 every day...it's really a nice thing for parents to look back on....capture action shots...not poses.

I ran summer camps for 7 years. I owned and operated a daycare centre for 14 years. It's a lot of fun running summer camp programs. If you're serious about doing it and you really enjoy it...you can have up to 5 children in your home without a licence. You can make some serious cash money offering this to other parents for a few weeks every summer. Just a suggestion. Feel free to e-mail me any questions.

Answer 6

Those are great ideas. Ask your daughter to come with some ideas of things she would like to learn about. We did this at a child care center one year and the kids came up with ideas we wouldn't have. It was great and they were more interested and excited about it because it was their own idea. We did a unit on space/astronauts, and one on dinosaurs. I can't remember what else but there we things we wouldnt have thought of.

There are lots of preschool websites that can help you think of themes as well. Here are a couple:

http://www.preschooleducation.com/topic....

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/theme...

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/

Answer 7

The most important thing you could do with your daughter is get her around other children to help build her social skills for kindergarten. Take her to parks and try to make play date arrangements with others.

The best art activities don't need to be so planned. Give her paint and paper different kinds of brushes-that's the most important ingredients to good art.