11 Must-Do Camping Activities for Preschoolers

Camping is a great way for kids to have some outdoor funand they enjoy the activities just as much as we adults do, or maybe even a bitmore than we do.But to make camping a success for kids as young aspreschoolers, we need to make sure that we have activities planned for them.

If you are planning a camping trip with your children ora group of preschoolers, then we have for you 11 must-do camping activitiesthat you can easily arrange.

1. Leaf Painting

Materials Required:Paint, brushes (optional), paper and lots of different leaves

Activity:

Spread different colors of paint on shallow trays or plates and get the children to press a leaf into the paint to have it pick up some color and then press the leaf onto a piece of paper.

If you have paint brushes, then the children can also paint the leaves using a brush and then press it onto the paper.

This is a great way to make cards or just decorate different surfaces. You can also use flowers and rocks alongside leaves to get different patterns.

2. Campfire Stories

Materials Required:

Some orange, yellow and red paper, a few logs and some rocks

Activity:

Cut strips of the colored paper to make the flames and arrange them accordingly around the logs and rocks to have a ‘’pretend campfire’. The children can sit around the makeshift campfire and listen to the stories you read out to them.

3. Assorted Rocks

Materials Required:

Assorted rocks of various colors and shapes, cups or bowls and magnifying glasses

Activity:

Pile up as many different rocks as possible and provide cups or bowls for the children to sort out the rocks and place them in the cups according to whichever way they decide to sort by.

You can also give them some magnifying glasses to really set the mood and make the activity more interesting.

Read Also: ​A Complete Solo Camping How-To Guide and Checklist

4. Scavenger hunt

Materials Required:

Create your own list of items that the kids are required to find. For example: toys, leaves, papers, pictures, cards, insects, etc.

Activity:

You can print out some scavenger hunts online or choose to design your own. The idea is to hide certain objects around the camp and get the children to hunt for them within a specific time. You can give them hints by providing landmarks or alerting them when they are near an item.

The child or group with the most items found can get a prize in the end.

5.Wood toys

Materials needed:

None!

Activity:

Children have the wildest imagination so you can easily use that for this activity and keep them busy for hours.

Ask the children to go around the camping area and collect twigs, sticks or tree branches that look like something specific to them. You will be surprised at how many ‘toys’ they collect by the end of the activity.

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6. Paper plane challenge

Materials required:

Paper to make paper planes.

Activity:

Make many paper planes and host a tournament where each child flies his or her plane and tries to fly it for the longest time in the air. You can also judge them by whose plane gets to cover the most distance.

7. Decorate-Your-Own S’more Stick

Materials required:

Washi tape, ribbons, paint and lots of sticks

Activity:

The children go looking for perfect little sticks that they collect and bring back to decorate using washi tape, ribbons and paint. They can later use these sticks to roast their favorite camping treat.

Read Also: ​11 Tips for Staying Cool On Summer Camping Trips

8. Sing along with glow sticks

Required materials:

Glow sticks

Activity:

If you are going to be camping at night, then get the children to sit around in a circle with glow sticks in their hands. The children can take turns to stand in the middle of the circle to perform a dance or sing their favorite song while the rest of the crowd all cheers and sway their glow sticks in the air.

9. I spy

Materials required:

None

Activity:

This is a classic and children of all ages can enjoy this game. Each child gets to pick an item within eyesight and give the rest of the children a chance to guess what it is. The clue is given by saying something like “I spy with my little eyes something round and blue”. The first person to guess the right answer wins.

If you feel that the children are unable to give hints then an adult can do the spying and the children can do the guessing.

10. Take a nature walk

Materials required:

Little baskets

Activity:

If you have enough adults to supervise the preschoolers, then you can take the group out on a nature walk. Give each child a basket so they can collect some unique items on the way.

The children can also collect items for an upcoming science fair at school. To make their walk interesting and more engaging, you can ask them to do things like:

  • ​Pick up a rock and throw it to the left
  • Take two big steps and then hop once
  • Walk 3 steps backwards
  • Hop on one leg
  • Find a pretty leaf, etc

11. Blanket Ball

Materials required:

A big blanket or bed sheet, a ball

Activity:

Make all the children stand around the spread out blanket or bed sheet. Each child will grab on to the edge of the fabric and pick it off the ground while you place a ball in the middle. The children must then roll the ball to each other and also try throwing it high in the air and catching it again as it comes down.

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Conclusion:

These are only some of the many activities that you can do with preschoolers on a camping ground. There are many other amazing games and activities that you can find online to make the most of your time with children in nature. There is always something for a child to learn from the activities listed above, so apart from being super fun, the kids will also learn a great deal from these exercises.

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