Community and Campfire Days

A dream of mine has been to increase opportunities for families to join their child's Kindergarten day and provide meaningful outdoor learning.  I came up the Community and Campfire days!  The idea is to set aside a 2 hour portion of 1 day a month when families can join their kindergarten participating in outdoor stations.  The stations include community volunteers and activities that are outdoors, actively engaging and meet standards.

The Structures: Kindergarten divides into 6 small groups of 10-15 students per group.  Each group rotates through each station for 20 minutes.  Each group is accompanied by a classroom teacher or para who assists with the activities and helps with group management.

The Stations:

The goal is for each station to be hosted by a community volunteer from the school, district or greater community.  Volunteers will arrive 15 minutes before the start of the station to set up and 15 minutes to clean up. We typically have a story stroll, a campfire and fruit or veggies roasting station, an outdoor math game, meet an animal, do a related craft or project, and learn from a community member volunteer.

I partnered with our local library system. A children's librarian joins us and reads a story stroll with each group (which she brings and sets up!)

I partnered with our Nutrition department and they are enthusiastic supporters of our program! They were able to use grant funds to buy all our roasting fruits and vegetables (Science, Health, Nutrition) Students learn where the food is grown (map and geography connection) and how it benefits their health and bodies. Then they roast the fruit or vegetable over the campfire (managed by parent volunteers) and taste it.  They graph their experiences.  All leftovers are composted!  Zero waste is the goal.

Playing an outdoor math game.

Our local public librarian sharing a story stroll.

One of our amazing nutrition staff teaching about the beets we would be roasting !  She was able to use funds from the fresh fruits and vegetables grant to supply our foods for roasting!  Our school nutrition staff are very supportive and prepare the foods for us (including pre-baking some of the harder vegetables and fruits so they roast more quickly)

One of our school paraprofessionals has a connection to a local nature center.  She brings in animals from the nature center and teaches about them.  Here we are meeting the world's nicest snake!

Lots of grown ups volunteer to help with the campfire.  We do have a permit.  Be sure you know the fire rules in your local area and pre-teach fire safety.

Enjoying a fun and sensory nature craft but together by an amazing parent volunteer.