Jasmine J.
First Grade Frenchies
The end of the school year is quickly approaching and you’re looking for an engaging and unique way to celebrate all the learning and hard work your students put in this year. Have you considered planning a French Camping Theme Week for your French end-of-the-year celebrations!?
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that your students will remember this day or week forever! There are so many possibilities for bonding, review and creativity with this theme. The best part is that the theme is inclusive to all students. It is something everyone can feel comfortable with. Whether students are camping pros or not, this French theme week will surely get everyone (including yourself) in the summer spirit.
To make your life easier while trying to plan this crazy fun week, I’ve rounded up 14 ways to implement a French camping week in your classroom! Some of these ways are completely free, while others may link to a paid resource. Feel free to use these ideas to plan your own camping week, without feeling the need to purchase much. There are so many ways to use the camping theme creatively, without spending much money.
It is also worth mentioning that although I refer to it as a camping theme WEEK, you can totally adapt these ideas and cram them into just a DAY if that is more realistic and manageable for you!
Let’s get into it and go camping!! (By the way, if you’re reading this blog post in the winter months, you’ll definitely want to check out my French Gingerbreak Theme Week blog post instead)
If you really want to go all out with the French camping theme, encourage your students to come dressed up in camping attire! This totally brings the theme together, adding fun and creativity. Students do not need to purchase anything new. You can tell them to wear camping colours (think: camo, army green, brown, neutrals) or flannels.They can also bring items like hiking boots, hats, bandanas and flashlights (more on this later in the post).I linked some fun camping items you can purchase for this theme week all the way at the end of the blog post. It’s all in my Amazon Storefront to make things easier, but you can find these items elsewhere too. Make sure to check out some thrift stores for unique items that would probably work great with this theme!
TripWhile it is probably unrealistic to try and actually go camping with your class, you can always go on a virtual field trip! I am a huge fan of virtual field trips, ever since the pandemic when we could not go on real ones.I quickly learned that there is some beauty to doing a virtual field trip in the classroom together, and students are just as excited for the day. You can build up anticipation by telling them that it will FEEL like we are camping together.This is also very inclusive to students who perhaps cannot afford to go camping or do not have guardians who can take them on these types of trips. For some students, this will be their very first taste of camping.I put this idea at the top of my list, because I think it really sets the tone for the week. If students don’t really know much about camping or what it entails, their buy-in will be low. This means that they won’t really care about the theme and will not be as engaged. So personally, I don’t think this is a step you should miss.I have a French camping virtual field trip already made and done for you, if you want to make your life easier. Otherwise, create a slideshow with information about camping, links to wilderness videos, songs, stories and games, and use it as your “virtual French field trip”.
This is a simple no-cost switch you can do, in order to make the theme feel more legit. Simply swap out things you usually do, with a camping flair.
For example, do you use a morning timer to signal when students need to put their soft-start bins away? Why not make it a camping timer! If you play a song for transitions, pick a camping song! Go on YouTube and find some camping videos for your body breaks. The list goes on!
I’m a big fan of putting on some fire-crackling ASMR-style videos in the background on your projector, or some nature sounds through your speakers, to really make the classroom feel like a campground!
Another great idea to add some French listening comprehension is by playing some videos and then having discussions, or having your students complete an exit ticket after watching the video.
There are some great videos that explore French camping vocabulary like this video by Monsieur Steve:
If your students are older and can handle more inquiry-based videos, you could do a deep dive on an aspect that is related to camping. Some of these topics could include: wildfires, outdoor survival skills, environmental conservation, indigenous knowledge of traditional camping practices, wildlife and so much more!
Find a topic that interests your group of students and lead an inquiry. You can find a ton of videos online to help with this. Don’t rule out English videos if you can’t find anything in French. You can still watch certain parts of an English video and then recap & have the discussions in French.
It is no secret that students are obsessed with crafting. This would be really fun to do for 1-2 periods after doing some more “heavy” work. I love crafting periods, because I put on some music or a video (great time to put that camping video on with the fire crackling sounds) and let students get crafty!
You could do an open-ended type of crafting session, where you provide the materials such as pom poms, construction paper, popsicle sticks, etc. and let students create what they want. You could also show some examples first online, to spark creativity.
If your class requires a little more structure, and you want to avoid all that planning, you could do a fun S’mores French Craft! I love this craft because there are multiple prompts to choose from. You could have students reflect on their school year, write the steps on how to make s’mores and so much more. Check it out!
Another fun craft idea is to have your students make FREE French camping crowns! Depending on the grade that you teach, this may not be appropriate but don’t write it off. You’d be surprised to find that even grade 4-5 students enjoy making crowns and wearing them as a funny accessory for the day.
I’ve created these crowns that you can download for free.
Continuing with the art theme, you could have students vote on a directed drawing video to recreate. This is a really fun bonding moment with your class, as I usually will do the drawings alongside them.
Here are some fun camping-directed drawing options. If the fact that these videos are in English is a major problem for you, you can always mute the video and just watch the steps instead. It’s the end of the year, so my guess is that you probably don’t care too much, but we’re all different!
I loveee me a “write-the-room” activity, as it gets students moving, learning & practicing French vocabulary and working on their handwriting, all at the same time.
While you may have done this activity numerous times, have you tried doing it outside? The weather is nice and you are doing a camping theme week, you might as well go outside!
Either do this over your planning time period, lunch, or get a colleague to help you out. Simply, scatter the vocabulary cards around the school building outside. I know some of you have neighbourhood forests, which would be even cooler!
Give students clipboards and have them find all the vocabulary words. I have a set of camping write-the-room cards included in my French camping activity packet!
Okay, this might be my favourite way to add some fun to the French camping theme week. This is so easy but will likely be the most memorable part for your students.
Simply ask students to bring in a blanket or sheet. You will then have them stack all the chairs to one side of the room so there is more space. They will put their blanket or sheet over their desk and that’s it!
They can then crawl underneath their desks for their very own private camping tent. It’s hilarious and they LOVE it! I have seen teachers do this with tablecloths instead if they do not want to ask families to bring in a blanket.
If you have group tables, you can still do this and have small groups go under the same tent. You will probably just need to layer multiple blankets, sheets, or tablecloths on the larger table.
You can use these tents for various purposes. Whether it is for some mindfulness activities, for class games, or for reading (see below), they will love it so much!
As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, you should definitely ask students to bring flashlights for this French camping theme day.
A super easy activity you can do is turn off all the lights, have students relax under their desks (AKA their tents), and use a flashlight to read! It is so fun and students will have zero complaints about doing some silent reading.
Afterwards, you could get into a community circle to tell campfire stories or simply share jokes, reflections from the school year and other community building discussions.
If students can’t bring in flashlights, an alternative is to find those cheap finger flashlights from Dollarama & Dollar tree. While they are not nearly as powerful, it is still the same idea, and you can even let them keep them as a fun prize since they are so affordable.
Here is a picture of what I’m referring to:
Depending on your school board, you may or may not be allowed to bring in treats. If this doesn’t apply to you, skip to the next idea.
If you are allowed to bring in treats and food, this would be an extremely fun (and tasty) option to do during your theme week!
I have seen some teachers make actual s’mores with their kiddos! While that sounds like a lot of fun, it can also be very time-consuming and messy.
A simple alternative is to make camping trail mix for your students! You can either pre-make all the bags or have students build their own camping treat. Put out all the ingredients into individual bowls, add scoopers or tongs and call a couple of students to the table at a time to assemble their treat. You can use plastic cups or bowls rather than ziploc baggies as well.
The treat tags as well as fun camping treat response pages are included in my French camping activity packet.
Here’s a cool idea I’ve seen online. I have not tried this myself, so I’ve got no clue how easy or hard it is to do, but I want to try it out in the future!
You can have students work collaboratively or in small groups to make construction paper fake fires! This involves teamwork and community-building, while also decorating your classroom and making the theme week even more of a success!
I am all about gamifying anything that I can, so when I created this resource, I had student engagement on my mind. I think it would be a blast to divide your class into teams (or squads) to complete this jeopardy-inspired game.
You can have students make their own team names too, so that they are extra motivated to win! Simply go through the game board and allow each team to pick the question that they will answer. The higher money value leads to a more difficult question. The team with the most money earned is the winner.
You can have a student be the treasurer who keeps track of the scores, or you can do this yourself. Totally up to you, but I guarantee that your class will love this digital trivia game!
There are a bunch of camping STEM activities floating around the internet. I highly recommend dedicating 1-2 periods to a STEM challenge throughout your French camping week. Why? Well, in real-life camping, you are bound to encounter some challenges. Perhaps your tent is not staying up, or you are struggling to make a fire, etc.
Doing a camping STEM activity really emulates the vibe and atmosphere that we are trying to create with this theme week.
You can have students build mini tents using toothpicks and gumdrops for example. There are tons of ideas that are just a Pinterest search away!
An activity I will probably do with my own students is this Save Fred: Gummy Worm STEM challenge. I’ve seen other teachers do this and they always say how much fun it was.
While perhaps not the most *fun* option on this list, we have to be realistic. Maybe you have not finished teaching all the curriculum concepts or you really need to ensure that your students have received some review before the last day of school.
Whatever the situation, you could totally do a boot camp review for a day and have your students review topics, lessons, or specific units in a fun way. Use timers, whistles, and incentives to get them through the review!
While some of the ideas on this list are already doing this (like the construction paper campfires and the makeshift tents), you can decorate your room even more.
You can add posters to your different stations, co-create a camping banner with your students, create class signs and more. You can do as little or as much decorating as your heart desires!
If you want to bring more natural elements (while being sustainable) you could totally do some nature decorating. Perhaps go on a nature walk with your class prior to beginning the camping theme week. Have them collect sticks, twigs, flowers, rocks, etc. Then with those materials, you can hang paper or fabric trees on the walls, place artificial plants or flowers around the classroom, and create a sky backdrop by hanging blue fabric or paper with white cotton balls as clouds.
If you’re looking for some more ways to add some flair to your camping theme week, you can check out some of the goodies I’ve posted in my camping folder on Amazon. If you do decide to purchase from my link, I’ll receive a small commission fee. Amazon makes money from your purchase either way, but it also helps me out too, so I appreciate it!
The beauty is that whatever you buy for this theme week, you can reuse it year after year, bringing the cost down. I suggest you grab one of those large clear Sterilite tubs to store all your camping materials for the next school year, so everything is in one place!
YAY! You’re now ready to start planning your AMAZING French camping theme week. I am so excited for you!
If you end up using any of these ideas and taking photos, I’d loveee to see what your class gets up to! I’d love it if you tagged me on Instagram (@firstgradefrenchies) so I can reshare your ideas with my audience!
Thank you for reading and I hope you have the most magical end of the school year with your students!
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