At-Home Activities: Survival Tips

Heather Martinson
Apr 10, 2021
4 min read

April 12-16

Workshop Class Activities:

Craft - Arrowheads
Key Points – Target Practice
Collaborative – Food Groups
Language Arts – Apples to Apples
Math/Logic - Rations
Prepare for Adventure – Survival Foods
Big Activity – Creative Survival
Movement - Chungi

At-Home Activities

See a suggested week schedule at https://www.celebrationeducation.com/single-post/free-curriculum

Materials

• various fiction and non-fiction books that relate to mountains

• journal or lined paper

• toothpicks

• die

• a handful of coins

• two bowls

• trail mix ingredients

Reading

Various fiction and non-fiction books that relate to mountains

Writing

Copywork

“‘I like the mountains because they make me feel small,’ Jeff says. ‘They help me sort out what’s important in life.’” – Mark Obmascik

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

Language arts lesson

Acronyms are words formed with the first letters or syllables of words in phrases or titles. They are usually written in all capital letters. Here are some examples:

EPCOT: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ROM: Random Access Memory

These fun ones are from Phineas and Ferb:

O.W.C.A.: Organization Without a Cool Acronym

L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.: The League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness

Writing Activity

Think of an expedition you would like to go on. Come up with a name for the trip and/or the group of people that are going with you. Make sure it has a good acronym!

Journaling

The bravest thing I ever did was the time I...

Math

Math Concept

When adding large numbers together, it is often necessary to regroup. For example, when you add seven and eight together, you may not even think about it, but you regroup to get one ten and a five (15). Much in the same way would would exchange ten pennies for a dime. It’s a simplest way to show the amount without changing the value. Regroups happens with larger numbers also, for example, one hundred pennies or ten dimes can be exchanged for one dollar.

Math Project

Place 100 or toothpicks in the center of a table. Roll a die and take that number of toothpicks. Your opponent will do the same. When you get ten sticks, bundle them and start a new set. Continue taking turns until someone gets a total of 50 toothpicks (5 bundles). At the end of each turn, announce the total number of sticks you have, i.e., 3 bundles and 7 sticks is 37.

Idea from: https://www.splashlearn.com/math-vocabulary/algebra/regroup

Math Concept

Cam “Swami” Honan has been named The most traveled hiker on earth. He has spent more than 20 years backpacking all over the earth. Because of his active lifestyle, he needs to eat around 5000 calories a day so that he doesn’t lose weight. Go here to see what he eats on the trail: https://www.thehikinglife.com/2017/01/the-thru-hikers-diet/

Math Project

Kids come in all sizes and each person's body burns energy (calories) at different rates, so there isn't one perfect number of calories that every kid should eat. But there is a recommended range for most kids between 6 and 12 years old: 1,600 to 2,200 per day, depending on how active they are.

How many calories do you eat in a day? Use food labels and a calories list to determine the number of calories in each of the foods you eat today. Write these numbers down in your journal or on a blank paper. At the end of the day, add up the total number of calories you ate for the day. Do you think it is a good number of calories for your size and energy level?

Here is a calories list you can use: https://www.uncledavesenterprise.com/file/health/Food%20Calories%20List.pdf

Mental math

Play a mental math game with a friend. You will give your friend a math problem to answer within three seconds. If she fails, you get a point. Now your friend gives you a math problem to answer. The first person to get five points wins. Before you start, choose parameters. For example, if you have a six-year-old playing against an adult, the adult will only give one-digit addition problems, but the child can give two-digit addition problems.

Math games

Get two bowls and a handful of coins. Set the bowls a few feet away from you. You and a friend each take turns throwing a coin into one of the bowls. If you miss the bowl, leave the coin there. After all the coins have been thrown, each of you will count how many coins you got in your bowl. Who got the most? You can play again, keeping a running total for all the rounds.

Projects

Research and Report

Make or improve on your family’s 72-hour food kit. Find out how much food your family would need for the kit and the best kinds of foods to put in the kit. Create a shopping list for a parent to purchase any needed items so that your family will be prepared should a disaster happen.

Themed Fireworks Project

Make trail mix that includes foods from each food group.

6-week project

Start a bigger project that will take six weeks to complete. By the end of the project you will have:

◦ A written report

◦ An oral report

◦ Some kind of a display

Choose a topic for your project. We’re studying mountains for the next few weeks, so choose a biological (living things, such as people, animals, and plants), geological (land formations, rocks and minerals), or archaeological (things made by people) thing that can be found in the mountains. It’s a good idea to be fairly specific. For example, choose a specific animal – not all of them.

Choose your display. A report display can be much more than a tri-fold board. You can make a diorama, a stuffed animal, or even a Lego structure.

Go here to get more ideas on how to do a 6-week report: https://www.celebrationeducation.com/post/2016/11/02/how-to-create-great-projects-for-groups-and-individuals

Outings

Visit an outdoor recreation store such as Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops.

Other Ideas

Make a Spartan spear: http://www.stormthecastle.com/how-to-make-a/spartan-spear.htm
Make Chungi: https://www.instructables.com/Chungi/
Amundsen took 25 dogs with him on his South Pole expedition. He brought 1.1 ounces of pemmican per day for each dog. The expedition took three months. How many pounds of pemmican did Amundsen take just for the dogs?
Practice and perform the “Emergency Broadcast System” skit: https://boyscouttrail.com/content/skit/emergency_alert_system-76.asp
Make a healthy snack.
Play some Nepali street games: http://ecs.com.np/features/nepali-street-games
Make animal traps.
- http://offgridsurvival.com/survival-traps-and-snares/
- http://www.wilderness-survival.net/food-2.php
- Discover the importance of nutrition for explorers: https://media.lanecc.edu/users/naylore/225Articles/amundsen.html