Campfire

Create a campfire.. give the children piece of green construction paper.
 Give them strips of brown construction paper logs to glue on.
 Have them glue the fire to the logs using red or orange paper.
Give them cotton balls to glue on as marshmallows

Tents

Let children cut and glue to make tents out of small milk cartons.
 Cut out the flap in the carton to make them more tent like.

~ or ~

Take a pig appliance box and make a tent out of it..

Roasting Marshmallows

Take a cotton ball and glue to a skewer stick for marshmallows.

Nature Painting

Paint with leaves, sticks, flowers, and rocks.
Paint with colors that are seen in the forest such as: brown, green, yellow, and orange
Cut easel paper into the following shapes: tent, rabbits, chipmunks, fish or other woodland creatures.

Camping Collage

Collect leaves, pebbles, twigs, pine cones, etc... Provide glue and sturdy tag board for the children.
Encourage children to create a collage on the tag board using the materials found while camping.

Tackle Box

Make two holes approximately 3 inches apart in the center of the lid of an egg carton.
 To form the handle, thread a cord through the holes and tie. Paint the egg carton. In your
 "tackle box" place paper clips for hooks and s-shaped Styrofoam pieces for worms.

Stick Vase

You will need:
sticks - about a 1/4 inch in diameter, an empty plastic peanut butter jar,
 thick rubber bands, raffia or ribbon glue, and clippers to cut the sticks

Camping Trip Fun

Give each student a large envelope to decorate for a camp bag. Have them look in
 magazines for pictures of things they would take on a camping trip. Don't forget the bug spray!

Campfire

I took 2 paper towel rolls and cut notches out of both of them so they sat flush to the table
 (making a +). I then took 4 toilet paper rolls and glued them to the +. I used masking tape
 to secure it all together and then covered the whole thing with pieces of ripped and crumpled
 brown tissue paper and a glue, finishing it off with a layer of watered down glue. The flames
 are pieces of orange, red and yellow tissue paper and pipe cleaners. I laid the pipe cleaner
 on a piece of tissue, folded the tissue over, shaped it into a simple flame, and taped the
 gathered tissue at the bottom. The flames are just placed into the hole left by the toilet
 paper rolls so it will be easy to store later (don't have to worry about finding
 a box that will match the height of the flames).

(Photos submitted by Jacy)

*** For an added touch, arrange a ring of crumpled paper rocks around the fire.
 You can place a flashlight  under the pretend fire, turn out the lights and
 gather around the campfire and sing some old favorite camping songs.

Backpacks

Place one large paper bag inside the other. Start cutting the back corner side of the sack down
 about 7" (17.78 cm). Do the same to the other back corner side. (This cut goes down about halfway.)
 You should have a piece which I will call a flapper that you can now crease and fold down in front of you.
 Now with the remaining sack, cut the three sides that are tall to the height where the flapper folds down.
 The sack should now look somewhat like a rectangular box with a flap. Taking the flap, staple one
 cardboard circle a couple of inches from the bottom, in the middle. Lifting the flap, place the other
 cardboard circle approximately 2 1/2" (6.35 cm) down from the middle and staple it in place.
 This circle is to be located in the front, middle section of your rectangular box shape.
Now you can cut a heavy piece of string and tie it around the circle on the flapper,
 leaving a portion dangling to wrap onto the bottom circle for closure. We like using rubber bands,
 as they do not seem to be as complicated for smaller children to use. Now you are ready to paint
 and decorate your backpack. Let dry. Lift the flapper and make two sets of horizontal slits
 in the back end of the backpack. On each side you will have one pair of slits. Each pair should be
approximately 2 1/2" (6.35 cm) wide. It will depend on the scraps of material that you will
 be inserting into these slits as to how long you will want to make your slits. I suggest
 going smaller to make sure it is the right length. You can always go back and cut longer
 lengths if needed. Insert your material strips into the top and bottom of the vertical slits
 and tie when adjusted properly to the child. You can tape the knot from your material
 strip to the inside of the sack with duct tape if it seems to have too much slack.

Who’s Sleeping In The Tent?

Cut 2 triangles out of paper. Slit up the front of the top piece and fold/roll back the flaps to peek inside.
 Glue to the second triangle. Have the children draw a picture of them sleeping or playing in the tent.

Lincoln Log Painting

Allow the children to use Lincoln logs to paint with.
Roll them in the paint and roll on paper or press on the paper.

Worm Painting

Let the children paint with rubber fishing worms or real worms
 and for those who are too squeemish use yarn.

Fireflies

On dark colored construction paper, have students use their finger to make
 two prints beside each other in white. Then using same finger do one
 print in the middle in yellow. The more they make the nicer it looks.

Binoculars

Cover two tissue rolls with black paper and glue together. Add yarn to wear around neck.

Canteen

Materials Needed:
2 heavy duty Chinnet paper plates,
 1 empty film canister,
 and a piece of string

Directions:
 Have the children paint their paper plates when they are dry glue them together
 (hot glue holds best) cut to small slots at the top the width of the film canister push
 the open end of the canister into the slots you may want to add some glue to
 keep it there. then with a paper punch punch a hole on either side of the film canister
 and tie your string on. looks so real we had parents thinking they could really fill them up.

Star Gazer

Glue a circle of aluminum foil over one end of a tissue roll. Cover with colored paper,
 leaving both ends free. Using a toothpick, punch a few holes in foil end.
 Look through the other end and you'll see stars!

Night Sky Stars

Give each child a sheet of white construction paper.  Beforehand, use a white
 crayon to draw several stars on each paper.  (Be sure to press down hard with
 the crayon when coloring in the stars.) Let your children brush thinned black
 tempera paint over their papers and watch as the stars appear in the "night sky."

Stick Man

Take the children out to hunt for their own stick. Then let them paint and decorate
 the sticks with odds and ends. They can add wiggly eyes also. They come out so cute
 and bright! We even gave the kids each one of those small clay flower pots and used clay
 to secure the stick in the pot and filled the pot with dirt or shredded paper. The kids gave their
 stick men names and they were allowed to paint the names onto the outside of the pots.

Stick Painting

Let the children paint using sticks.

Bagel Bird Feeder

Supplies Needed:
Bagel
Peanut Butter
Bird Seed
 Yarn or String

Directions:
Have children spread peanut butter on a bagel. When done, dip bagel in bird seed.
 Attach a piece of yarn and hang outside on tree branches or on fence.

Bird Feeder

Make bird feeders...simple ones using cheerios and pipe cleaners...
then hang them in the trees.

Cereal Box Back Packs

Make backpacks from cereal boxes. -  Have each child bring an empty cereal
box from home.  Tape the top flab shut.  Cut a 'u' shaped opening to create
a flip-open type opening.  Let them pick a color of construction paper to
cover the box-or they can paint it or add collage material, etc.    To make
straps I took long strips of duct tape and folded it onto itself lengthwise
and then attached them to the back of the box like backpack straps.  The
children then could pack and unpack their very own backpack.