Time Travel Week at Camp Weary Parent

The theme for this week is time travel! We will travel back in time, into the future and everywhere in between through activities, games and research. Today has four activities – feel free to use them all if you have time, or just let the kids pick the ones they are interested in.

1. Make a time machine. Since the concept of time machines is pretty abstract, give the kids a challenge. Either draw or build a time machine – the way you think one would look. Research various time machine models for inspiration. This activity really is open to interpretation. The time machine can be in the form of a fort made from objects in the house or the yard. It can be built out of soda bottles, egg cartons and other items in the house, it can be built out of Legos or it can just be a drawing.
2. Back in the day worksheet. What was the headline on the day you were born? How about the price of gas? The President? Jump over to my printables site and grab the Time Machine Worksheet. If time and interest allows, have kids call up the grandparents and interview them and then compare answers from different periods of time. If you really have a creative crew, have them pick a time way in the past or invent a time in the future and do research on a fictitious character.
3. Time Machine Word Search. Get kids familiar with about 20 different periods in time with the Time Machine Wordsearch. Find the words going horizontal, vertical and diagonal. For an added challenge – have the kids research and identify the years each era in time occurred.
4. Play the ancient game of Mancala. The game of Mancala is possibly one of the oldest games in the world. It is easy to learn and can be made out of a variety of materials. In Africa they use pebbles for the pieces and the game spots are hollowed out of the ground. Mancala is an easy game to make out of a simple egg carton and small objects found in the house (pebbles, marbles, pennies, paper clips, dry cereal, etc).
   1. Instructions for playing Mancala
   2. Make your own Mancala
   3. The history of Mancala

Don’t miss any of the fun – stop back in tomorrow or visit the Camp Weary Parent page for a complete listing of all the activities to date.