Another great topic for the Summer Term is Camping.
Some children may have been camping with beavers or scouts and will be familiar with the vocabulary. One year a parent sent in a camping set from beavers with camping mats, pots, pans and everything you could think of! We had so much fun during that topic.
The childrens’ gazebo is great for this topic, as it allows the experience of a tent for some children that might be apprehensive. Parents may send in smaller childrens’ tents too. In my own class we had quite a big campsite during Aistear with a common picnic area. All set up by the class. They really enjoyed this topic. Resources for the socio-dramatic area can be donated by parents, if not a picnic set, mats and a little tent is enough to begin with.
In small world we used the story camping out as an idea for small world play. Children had animals, cars, caravans and road mat and recreated the story and extended it.
In construction we made tents using the Chad Valley build your own play centre. In sand the children were at the beach and finally in Art the children got to make campfires with different materials and resources and they got to make a tent picture using different fabrics.
Camping is a really enjoyable topic and it is also easy to encourage parental involvement through sending in the resources from home.
Aistear Múinteoir 