“What can you bring when you go camping?” Gabriella Lettieri, Special Education Teacher, at BCCS’ Round Hill Road Preschool asked students as they worked on crafts.
“A tent!” students shouted in unison. When Gabriella asked what else, answers came quickly: fire, a fishing pole, marshmallows, even a buffalo that they were planning to eat.
This summer, students in Gabriella’s classroom learned about marine animals, the beach, dinosaurs, pirates and mermaids, and camping on their final week. By Thursday of Camp Week, preschoolers had worked their way through a full lineup of camping-themed lessons and activities.
“We made s’mores with cotton balls. We made our own lanterns,” Gabriella said. “We try to make it really hands-on for them and put a lot of sensory experiences in it.”
Students especially enjoyed making campfire crafts on paper plates with three simple colors.
“My hand is all red,” a student shared gleefully. After laying down the brown foundation with a paint brush, students dipped their hands in pools of red, yellow, and orange paint. Teachers guided their paint-soaked hands to make bright flames with their handprints.
These activities keep students fully engaged in the subject matter – learning about fire by drawing it by hand and learning about roasting marshmallows by associating them with cotton balls. When an actual camping opportunity arrives, they can look forward to sitting by a fire under the warm glow of lantern light.
They may ask questions or even recall the time when they painted a campfire at school. Covering multiple related activities in a unit supports learning and skill development that carries beyond the classroom.
As many of the students are heading to kindergarten in the fall, the objective for the teachers in the summer weeks was simple.
“It was about growing in their social skills,” Gabriella said. “We’re trying to get them self-sufficient, social, making friendships and carrying them out by themselves, without our supports.”
And as Summer Session came to a close, Camping Week offered one more chance to learn, create and connect – skills and memories students take with them into kindergarten and their next adventure.
