This camping printable book is just right for your camping activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids. Or as part of your preparations for taking a camping trip with children!
Explore high frequency words, phonics, and other early literacy skills using the camping emergent reader. It’s also a great way to review basic book handling skills and book knowledge with young kids.
You can use the printable camping book any time of the year. It’s very low prep, too, so you can have it ready to go tomorrow morning!
Related: Printable Books
I love that this simple book can be used during a variety of themes – camping, forest, outdoors, etc. Of course, you can also try it out just because, without an overarching unit surrounding it!
Be sure to request your own copy of the book near the bottom of this post, above the final image.
Camping Printable Book
Below, I outline some prepping tips and how to use the camping emergent reader with kids. Please note that you can change things up as you see fit! Don’t worry about doing things exactly the same way I do.
How to Prep the Printable Camping Book
As I mentioned above, this is a very low-prep printable. I like to make books like this in such a way that you just have to print, fold, and staple them. I just find that the easiest way!
Related: Camping Playdough Mats
Before you put the camping printable book together, be sure to grab the supplies you’ll need. Here’s what I used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
If you want to do things a little different, you might need some different materials. Here are some additional possibilities:
- Markers
- Scissors (or paper cutter)
- Laminator
Once you have the items you need, it’s time to prep the camping readers. Print the pages out and make as many copies as you’d like. Fold each page in half, with the words and pictures facing out. Put the pages in order, and then staple on the left-hand side. Here’s a short video that shows how to assemble my readers:
Now it’s time to call the children over for some book-making fun!
How to Use the Camping Printable Book with Kids
I prefer to work on emergent readers like this one during small groups, but you can decide what works best for you and your students.
Talk with the children about camping and the various items generally brought on a camping trip. This might lead to some fun camping stories from your students! I’m always entertained to hear their thoughts and experience.
Depending on their ages and needs, you might need to model and explain how to hold the book and move through the pages. Introduce and review any high frequency words as applicable for your students.
This is a great time to do some word work based on those words! Break out the magnetic letters to show how the words are spelled, how to say the sounds within the words, and how to change letters to create new words.
Read through the book with the kids, pointing to each word. Model how to say the sounds and words found within the book. Encourage the children to follow along and participate (based on their ages and needs, of course).
Then let the children color the illustrations on each page. Make sure to keep the camping printable book in the classroom for a little while to read and re-read together.
Other Ways to Use the Emergent Reader
You can use this book in a few other ways as well! Here are some more possibilities:
- Cut the pages apart and laminate them individually. Pair the pages with magnetic letters, white boards, and dry erase markers. Let kids make the words with the letters or practice writing them on the white boards.
- Write the sentences on sentence strips, and then place the strips in a pocket chart. Have the pictures separate. Work with the children to read the sentences and match each picture to the appropriate line. Bonus points if the kids get to use a fun pointer during this activity.
- Read the book to the children prior to a discussion about camping. Turn it into a writing experience, asking the kids to help create a list of what they’d bring to go camping.
How else would you use the camping printable book with your students? Feel free to tell me about it in the comments below.
What Skills Does the Printable Camping Book Cover?
One of the reasons I love using emergent readers with kids is they can cover a whole slew of early skills. They’re also easy to differentiate for children of different ages and needs. For example, younger kids can use the camping printable book as a way to practice book handling skills. The readers can also get them excited about books and learning to read.
For other children, little readers like this one allow them to put their literacy skills to work. They get to practice reading from left to right, top to bottom. They get to practice decoding words of various lengths and types.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of skills the camping printable can be used for:
- Reading directionality
- Book handling
- Parts of a book
- High frequency words
- Punctuation
- Spacing
- Decoding
- Letter-sound correspondence
Not too bad for a small kid-illustrated book about camping, right?!
More Camping Activities for Kids
If the camping printable book was a hit with your students, here are a few more ideas to try:
- Campfire Calendar Numbers
- Camping Painted Rocks
- S’mores on a Stick
- Camping Board Game
- Pet Rock Craft
- Pete the Cat Goes Camping Craft
- I Spy Camping
Don’t forget to request your copy of the camping reader near the bottom of this post!
Camping Lesson Plans
Let my sister site, Preschool Teacher 101, make your teaching days a lot easier with done-for-you early childhood resources. We have hundreds of lesson plans, dramatic play packs, math games, literacy activities, STEM challenges, and so much more.
We even have The Pack, our membership for preschool and kindergarten teachers! Our members have access to our materials at a very steep discount.
I think our camping lesson plans pair well with the camping printable book. Click on the image below to get it. It comes with weekly plans, detailed daily plans, book suggestions, whole group lessons, small group activities, and center ideas!
You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers, if that’s your preferred place to shop.
Request the Camping Printable Book
The printable camping book is available to members of my (free!) Fun-A-Day email community. If you’re already part of it, just enter your email address for the download link. If you’re not, join us by entering your information in the form below. Then you’ll receive the camping reader as a welcome gift!
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