One Camel Called Doug by Lu Fraser and Sarah Warburton and published by Simon and Schuster is a fantastic story about a camel who lives alone but then when he meets more camels he realises that he can do different things. Doug enjoys having the others around him but then realises that sometimes it's okay to just want to be alone. The story is fun to read, it rhymes and involves numbers. It is the perfect bedtime story. The pictures are fun to look at and my son loves listening to the names of the different camels.
Activities
See-saw
Skipping
Fancy dress
Football
Relay
Treasure hunt
Pass the parcel
Camel matching team game
Musical bumps
Camel biscuits
Camel bump tacos
Camel bagels
Wanting to be alone/with others discussion
Make a camel
Edible sand
Camel matching game
Camel paperchains
Outdoor
The story is set outside so I thought we could start with the outdoor activities first. There are lots of different activities mentioned in the story so you could try some of them out with your child/children. Some of the easier ones to try out are playing on a see-saw, doing skipping, fancy dress and playing football and then some of the ones that need a bit more planning are running a relay, a treasure hunt and pass the parcel. You could give your child/children a choice of what they would like to do and they could get involved in the planning of the treasure hunt. If your outdoor area is big enough you could set out different activities all around it and then your child/children can go round and have a go at each one. If not you could do the activities at different times. The skipping activity you could get your child to do it alone first and then they could do it with three people and decide which one they liked best. You could do the treasure hunt with numbers and camels. So, for example, younger children could find the number 3 and then have to look round the garden for 3 camels hidden together. This will help with their numerical skills and is fun. there is also musical bumps and pass the parcel mentioned so if you could get a few people together then these are definitely fun games to play. You could always put numbers and camels n the layers of the pass the parcel so everyone has to try and match the numbers to the numbers of camels and it will be become a big team game.
Food/Cooking
You could make some camel shaped biscuits and then your child/children could decorate them using different chocolates and sweets to look like some of the camels in the story. For something savoury you could make some tacos and pretend that these are camel humps. You could fill them with all tasty things and your child/children can enjoy eating their camel humps for dinner. A final camel inspired food could be to cut some bagels in half and have those as the camel humps. You could then use some carrots for the camel legs and tomatoes for the camels head. You could talk to your child/children while you are doing the food activities about how it is nice to play with others but also people need alone time and that this is okay too. You could talk about times when people might want to be alone or when they might want to be with others.
Indoor
A fun activity could be to make some camels. You could do this using card and then you could use some parts of an egg box for camels humps. Your child/children can be as creative as they want or they could choose one of the camels and copy it. Another fun activity could be to make some edible sand. If you crush some biscuits and cereal up and then put it on a tray or baking tray then your child/children could have a play. You could add in some numbers as there are numbers mentioned in the story and if you have some toy camels then your child could play with these too. If you don't have any toy camels then you could draw or print some off and then wrap them in sticky tape or laminate them so they don't get crumpled in the sand. You could always do pictures of one camel and then two camels etc. and then your child/children can match the correct numbers to the number of camels. A final indoor activity could be to make a camel paperchain. You could do the heads and tails joining and then your child/children could decorate them using crayons or felt tips to look like the camels in the story.
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