Create camping inspired crafts to help reinforce a camping theme for first-graders. Go on a nature walk similar to one that might take place on a camping trip. Supply students with small bags and ask them to gather rocks, sticks and pine cones to take back to the classroom. Be sure you have permission to gather items where you take the walk. Supply students with google eyes, glue, yarn, beads, fabric scraps and other craft items to create funny nature creatures out of the materials. Students can also use the found nature items to paint with. Give the kids tempera paint and paper and allow them to use sticks, leaves and pine cones as paint brushes.
Incorporate the theme of camping into language lessons. Read camping themed books to the first-graders during story time. The story "Bailey Goes Camping" by Kevin Henkes is a good read aloud book about camping. The story is about a bunny too young to join his siblings on a camping trip with the bunny scouts, so he decides to go camping in the backyard instead. You can also choose to use camping themed words as vocabulary and spelling assignments. Choose words such as camp, fire, travel and outdoor for children to learn.
Use fun camping themed activities to help first-graders learn about camping safety and other concepts. Set up a tent in the classroom or outside. Make believe the class is camping and discuss about fire safety, compasses and staying with the group to not get lost in the woods. Serve s'mores (made in a microwave or uncooked) if that is allowed at the school and with permission of parents. Another camping themed activity is a scavenger hunt where students look around the room for camping related objects that have been hidden. Draw camping related items onto index cards and hide those instead of the items themselves if the actual items are unavailable.
A camping themed party is a good way to end a section on camping or as an introduction. Decorate the room, including the bulletin board, with camping related items and images. Play games and serve food with permission of school and parents. A field trip to a park is another way to help children learn about camping. Have a special speaker, such as a Boy Scout leader, visit the class and talk briefly about camping safety or how a person might survive in the woods.