With summer just around the corner, kids begin to think of all the fun things they can do such as swimming, sleepovers, and camping. Camping is an experience that teaches us so much about nature, problem solving and how to have fun outside. As you begin to plan for a real camping trip or prepare for your preschool camping theme, check out some of the books about camping in this collection below. You’ll find fun picture books and some nonfiction books about camping for kids.
Books About Camping
FIND ALL OF OUR CAMPING IDEAS IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Camping Stories
Flashlight by Lizi Boyd
Flashlight is story about a boy in the woods at night with a flashlight. The pages are black and illustrations are drawn in gray and white. The only colors are shown where the flashlight shines. There are also cutouts from page to page that show hidden items.
The Big Blue Thing on the Hill by Yuval Zommer
The Big Blue Thing on The Hill, a RV, has all the forest animals worried. The animals each take turns trying to scare the “thing” away. This is a fun book that looks at camping from the animal’s perspective.
When We Go Camping by Margriet Ruurs
When we Go Camping is a fun book about two kids that are camping. Throughout the book there are hidden animals on each page for your little one to search for as you read.
Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping by Melanie Watt
As you might have guessed Scaredy Squirrel is not a fan of camping…at least not outdoors. But in this story Scaredy must find an electrical outlet, and that means going into the woods! In Scaredy Squirrel style he outlines and extensive action plan to avoid the perils, and along the way he learns that maybe nature isn’t so bad.
Duck Tents by Lynne Berry
Duck Tents is a sweet story of five ducks that are camping. The five ducks enjoy fishing and a camp fire, but when it comes time for bed the five ducks find that one tent is better than five.
Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristine O’Connell George
Toasting Marshmallows is a poem book about camping. The poems come in all styles and include illustrations that are whimsical and dream like.
A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen
In A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Mr. Magee and Dee head for the mountains to camp and both are excited to spend some time in nature. The trip takes a very strange turn when the camper comes lose during the night. Little Bit and I enjoyed the crazy ride that Mr. Magee and Dee take.
S Is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet Book by Helen Foster James
S is for S’mores is an alphabet book that includes everything from canyon, desert, s’mores and much more. This book includes many different places that you can camp.
Camping by Nancy Hundal
Camping is a story of a family vacation that is unlike any other trip the family has taken. They soon discover the importance of spending time together and the magic of camping.
Stella and Roy Go Camping by Ashely Wolff
Stella and Roy Go Camping with their mom and will never forget their trip. Along the way readers can look for hidden animals and can use the reference pages in the back to track animals.
1 2 3 Make a S’more with Me by Elizabeth Gauthier
This camping inspired counting book makes a perfect attention grabber for math lessons during your camping theme.
Scare a Bear by Kathy-jo Wargin
Would you bang pots and pans?
Would you rattle some cans?
Would you shout?
Would you yell?
Would you ring a loud bell?
Preschoolers love the rhyming and silliness in this fun story!
Our Great Big Backyard by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush Hager
Our Great Big Backyard provides a gentle introduction to our nation’s National Parks encouraging families to trade in the technology for a road trip filled with natural wonders. Read it together. Then spend some time researching one or more of the National Parks.
Goodnight, Campsite by Loretta Sponsler
Goodnight, Campsite focuses on RV camping to give kids a bit of a different perspective from typical stories that focus on tents. The rhyming text makes it an excellent springboard to continue phonemic awareness activities after reading aloud to preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Don’t Feed the Bear by Kathleen Doherty
In Don’t Feed the Bear Ranger and Bear are at odds, one wanting to be fed and the other discouraging visitors from feeding the bear. Kids will laugh at the silliness in this fun story! Follow up this story by having kids write their own silly signs that could be part of the book.
Ruby’s Sleepover by Kathryn White
Ruby and her friend are camping out in the backyard when some noises start to scare them, but Ruby has some special treasures to help.
The Three Little Pigs Go Camping (After Happily Ever After) by Tony Bradman
This is a short chapter book that works well as a read aloud for young kids who are familiar with the traditional version of The Three Little Pigs. Kids can discuss any similarities to the original stories.
Guide and Fact Books
The Kids Campfire Book by Jane Drake & Ann Love
The Kids Campfire is a collection of recipes, tips and tricks, campfire stories, songs, games and more. The book is broken into sections based on stages of camping, from setting up to the end of the night.
So Much S’More to Do by Becky Rasmussen
Get to cooking with these fun twists on the classic s’more recipe. For added fun have kids create and write their own s’more recipe.
Campout! The Ultimate Kids’ Guide by Lynn Brunelle
Campout! Is the ultimate campers guide to all things camping. The book is written for elementary age kids and older and includes information on weather, food, camping skills, crafts, games, the night sky and so much more.
More Camping Fun
Get ready for your camping trip and add to the fun with this Camping Small World for pretend play at home or in the classroom.
GET A FULL WEEK OF CAMPING THEME LEARNING AND PLAY
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) Animal Tracks Matching Activity (Color and B/W)
2) Individual Camping Survey Sheets (2 versions)
3) Whole Group Camping Graph Headers
4) Words vs Letters Sorting Activity (Color and B/W)
5) Camping Letter Matching Puzzles
6) Camping Number Cards
7) Camping Pattern Cards (Color and B/W)
8) Ending Sound Matching Activity
9) Gone Fishing Counting and Number Recognition Activity
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Preschool Classroom Camping Theme Lesson Plans
All of our products are also available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you prefer to shop there.
More Resources for Little Book Lovers
The best way to encourage a love of reading is to provide kids with many opportunities to engage with a wide variety of books that are of interest to them. That’s why we share so many books lists on Fantastic Fun and Learning. We want to make it easy for you to find great books your kids will love. Over the years we’ve also discovered some helpful tools for connecting kids and books.
Digital libraries are one very handy way to do this. Epic! is one of our favorite online libraries. It’s full of over 25,000 books, learning videos, quizzes and more for kids 12 and under…and it’s free for educators. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Book Boxes are another fun way to get kids excited about reading. What kid doesn’t love to get a special delivery in the mail?! The crew over at Bookroo finds the best little known books that you won’t already have in your library, and they send them to you each month. Take a peak inside a Bookroo Box here.
Book-Based Activities are also a lot of fun for kids. Jodie over at Growing Book by Book has saved us all a ton of time and created a full year of Book-Based Activity Calendars so that you can extend the fun with a special book each week.
Originally posted May 2015. Last updated May 2019.
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