After a very long time not teaching in person I was able to have students again for an Australian animals theme summer camp. Summer camps this year revolve around different countries. Since preschool students love animals I focused on the animals of Australia during this three day camp.
Australian Animals Measuring
Students use the cubes to measure how large the Australian animals were at the math center. This Australian Animals Measurement Center is meant to be used with Excellerations Linking Cubes and Triangles, which will match with the graphics when printed to size. They can also be used with other linking cube brands, but may not match up exactly due to size variations. After measuring an animal students were welcome to explore and build with the cubes.
Australian Animals Q-Tip Painting
Q-tip painting is always a hit with my students so I created these Australian Animal Q-tip Painting pages to use during this camp. Some pages have dots to fill in on the animal, while others have the student create the letter the animal begins with using the q-tip and paint. Students between 2.5 and 5 years old enjoy this center, with developmental differences in results.
Australian Animals Dot Marker
Dot Markers are also usually a hit with students, so I found an Australian flag for the younger students to complete and added the Australian Animal alphabet dot marker pages for a challenge for the older students. It was a good opportunity to teach a student who will be moving into PreK dotting for a purpose. The flags were definitely a hit with the younger students.
Australian Animals Sensory
The sensory bin for our Australia theme had sand that had been dyed reddish and added Australian animals. Another set of Australian animals with matching picture cards was placed on one of the tables for some more exploration. Amazon has a few options for animal sets, although these are not the sets that I purchased several years ago.
Australian Animals Crafts
Crafts are fairly simple during camps, especially this year with adding in lots of extra hand washing and such to reduce the risk of sharing germs and not having an assistant in the room.
We explored some Aboriginal art ideas using the end of pencils to paint a lizard. You can find a link to this printable at the bottom of the page here. The one above is my sample since I did not get photos of my students’ finished products. Since this was a camp I did share samples with the students of the craft we were completing. During the regular school year I try not to have samples if my goal is more art than craft.
The students really enjoyed trying to make their kangaroos jump after coloring them. A couple students carried their kangaroos around the playground after making them to have them jump around. For instructions and printable, please check out Lotta magazine. I had only thick rubber bands on hand, so ended up cutting them in half long way to make them work.
The platypus craft took a little prep time since all the parts needed to be cut out beforehand. Students stuff the bag with some paper shred and then I staple it closed. Students had all the pieces and the sample to look at, along with glue sticks and glue dots for the eyes. For this craft I let the child decide where all the parts go. I also help with the glue dots.
Australian Animals Books
I am a bit limited with my books to read since the local libraries are shut down currently. I did have a few books on hand, which I shared with my students to learn a bit about Australian Animals. My favorite is the pop up one from National Geographic. The other books I have do not seem to be available on Amazon, so I am sharing a few similar titles that you can check out.
Looking for some freebies? Check out my Freebies for PreK Teachers page.
You can also find all of the Australian Animal printables I have created in the Australian Animal bundle. The bundle includes several activities that would work well in a PreK classroom but we did not have time to use in a three day camp.
