Nuffer Family Summer Camp!

It's time for summer camp!  I'm so excited this year for so many reasons-  For one, I'm not pregnant!  WOOHOO!  Two, I'm not in any classes this summer!  And third, I've made some changes to the summer camp that are going to make each week more fun and enjoyable for everyone.

The biggest change this year is that I'm nixing any kind of schedule.  Some days we just didn't get to whatever I had planned for that particular day, and I felt so guilty about it- like I failed at a camp that I created- that's crazy!  Ain't nobody got time to create senseless guilt!  So this year, every week will still have a theme (some old, some new), and each week we will have a field trip, a movie day, crafts, and experiments, but I'm not going to restrict myself to a certain day of specific activities.  Each week I'll have lots to do for that theme, more than enough activities for the week, so there will be plenty of choices and options for each day.  So, basically, I'm going to feel out each day because stuff (meaning: personalities and tantrums) happens.  We'll also participate in the library's reading challenge and go to story time when we can, I'll still try to get books that coordinate with each weeks theme, like I have before.

The boys are also enrolled in swim lessons and an "all-sports" type class to get some energy out every week.  To work their minds and keep academics fresh, I am enrolling them on ABCmouse.com.  It's cheap and it has tons of activities in all areas of study.  It only goes up to 2nd grade, so I'll have to figure out something different for Jackson next year, but it's great for this summer!

Drumroll please...?!?

NFSC themes for 2015:

Week 1 (June 8-12), Our Body:

1. Human Skeleton puzzle (I found a similar puzzle to this one at Sams or Costco)
2. Skeleton/body worksheets
3. Dental care activity 
4. Play Just Dance or play with animal body movement cards to exercise our bodies!
5. Community helpers (safety) worksheets and activities
6. Visit a fire station of ambulance (safety)
7. X-ray craft with q-tips
8. Skeleton hand craft
9. Play with My Incredible Body app (it's $4.99)

*Movies ideas:  Hotel Transylvania (because a main character is a skeleton) or Tangled (because she feels grass and nature for the first time- senses)

*Field trip:  Fire station or ambulance or the Science Spectrum for some fun body exhibits

Week 2 (June 15-19), Pirates, Arrrrrr!:

1. Paper plate pirate craft
2. Make pirate gear and play dress-up
3. Have a picnic with pirate food
4. Make a treasure chest (with popsicle sticks like this or paint one from Hobby Lobby)
5. Have a scavenger hunt for above treasure chest with this map
6. Make a pirate ship with marshmellows
7. Make paper pirate puppets and put on a puppet show

*Movie ideas:  Lego Movie (Metal Beard, the pirate) or watch some Jake and the Neverland Pirates

*Field trip:  The castle park (Legacy Play village)- I don't know why, but it reminds me of pirate ships

Week 3 (June 22-26), Animals:

1. Make an animal craft (I have TONS of animal crafts at home and several pinned on Pinterest)
2. Make a bird's nest
3. Make a glow bug or this glow bug
4. Animal coloring pages
5. Caterpillar metamorphosis activity
6. Animal groupings
7. Animal yoga
8. Frog life cycle activity
9. Animal charades
10. Birds craft or this bird craft
11. How-to draw animals

*Movie ideas:  Any of the Madagascar movies

*Field trip:  Critter Fest at the Science Spectrum or visit the Amarillo Zoo

Week 4 (June 29 - July 3), America, the beautiful!

1. Paint fireworks with pipe cleaners
2. Make 4th of July windsock
3. Presidents worksheets
4. Make flag craft
5. Flag worksheet
6. Make firework ring
7. Make Statue of Liberty costume
8. Patriotic necklace

*Movie ideas:  Wreck it Ralph (what's more American than an arcade??) or Netflix's Amazing America (storybook treasures)

*Field trip:  See a firework display

Week 5 (July 6-10), Flight:

1. Make paper airplanes (I found a couple paper airplane books for the boys to make)
2. Paper airplane flying school
3. Clothespin and stick planes
4. TP roll plane (different language, but I can copy the plane)
5. Balloon rockets
6. Paper and straw rocket

*Movie ideas:  Planes Fire and Rescue

*Field trip:  Silent Wings Museum

Week 6 (July 13-17), Space:

1. Edible solar system
2. Sidewalk chalk / hop scotch solar system
3. Oreo moon phases
4. Orbit lesson/craft
5. Create your own constellations
6. Flashlight constellations
7. Color by number space picture
8. Moon macaroni craft
9. Space bingo
10. Make the universe with contact and tissue papers (this is my own idea, just thought it'd be fun)

*Movie ideas:  Escape From Planet Earth or that new movie about the alien coming to Earth???

*Field trip:  the Science Spectrum or the planetarium show (on space)?

Week 7 (July 20-24), It's A Small World (culture week):

1. Learn about the world on a map (I found a cheap laminated world map at Sam's/Costco)
2. Talk and learn about different cultures (I'll choose different cultures and we'll talk about them)
3. Try ^^ their food (we'll make food together of above cultures)
4. Continent worksheets
5. Map magnets puzzle
6. Pictographs sentences
7. Chinese alphabet, write our names
8. Make African collar necklace
9. Paper plate dream catchers
10. Paper plate basket weaving
11. Learn "hello" in different languages

*Movie ideas:  Rio or Rio 2

*Field trip:  TTU Museum

Week 8 (July 27-31), The Earth:

1. Make bird feeders
2. Go on a nature scavenger hunt or this hunt or this hunt
3. Make at home recycling center (we don't have one since we moved)
4. Plant a garden/plant using newspaper for seedlings
5. Observe plastic baggie plant (just place seeds in a wet paper towel in a plastic baggie)
6. Make an Earth with tissue paper
7. Earth day worksheet
8. Watch plant growing video
9. Make your own chia pet
10. Label plant parts activity
11. Make nature sun catchers

*Movie ideas:  The Lorax or School House Rocks:  Earth (on Netflix)

*Field trip:  visit the Lubbock Lake Landmark

Week 9 (August 3-7), The Ocean:

1. Ocean scene with wax paper craft
2. Make a Jellyfish craft
3. Make a jellyfish in a jar
4. Make an ocean scene craft
5. Make an octopus craft
6. 5 Little Fishy puppets
7. Make a scuba diver selfie
8. Ocean coloring pages
9. Clean a polluted ocean experiment
10. Ocean animal mazes

*Movie ideas:  Finding Nemo

*Field trip:  the Science Spectrum's fish in the basement

Week 10 (August 10-14), Weather:

1. Water cycle activity
2. Rainbow craft
3. Make a weather chart for the week (I just make a bar graph with the boys for the week)
4. Weather experiment
5. Make different clouds with cotton balls
6. Make seasons trees
7. Make rain sticks
8. Sun prints experiment
9. Cloud and rain craft
10. Look at clouds with cloud-scope

*Movie ideas:  Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1 or 2

*Field trip:  the Science Spectrum or the Windmill Museum