Fiesta Camp Crafts Part II

Metal Painting

I spent a lot of time researching this one.  There are a gazillion ways to do it from super simple to very complicated.  Only the 4- and 5-year-olds did this.  I think I would try it with my 3s during the regular school year when I know all the personalities and what we are capable of.  We get kids from all over during camp so it is harder to anticipate abilities.

Anyways, one teacher just had the kids draw and color with sharpies and then added glitter and it turned out great.   That was simple but visually stunning.  I  missed the photo again and I apologize for not be able to correctly attribute this sample photo.  Teaching camp this time made it nearly impossible to see what was going on in other classrooms.

Maracas

Plastic Easter eggs, beans or rice, plastic spoons, fun tapes.  Super easy and lots of fun.

We used colored spoons to make it a bit more colorful, but the idea was the same.  The camp kids picked all kind of color combinations.

Cactus Sunset

Once again I missed the photo of our finished product.  But this was the inspiration photo. 

We precut the cacti since our kids were just not scissor savy.  They ripped colored  tissue paper and glued it onto an orange background.   So where the tissue didn't cover it still had a sunset glow.  Then glued the cactus on top.

I would definitely do this again during the year.  Probably when we do Cowboy/5 senses and make a sandpaper cactus.

Back to School

We are off and running.  It was a good first week.  The usual whimpers and whines, but no tears. 

I am adjusting as much as the kids since I have one partner teacher for the M W F class and another for T TH.  We are getting the hang of it.

Fun Fiesta Crafts Part I

Fiesta Camp was the camp I was most worried about finding good projects for.  It ended up being the best camp of the summer.   As usual we searched and searched for ideas and then tweaked them to make them our own.

Silly Chili / Hot Stuff

This was super fun.  The kids always like getting their feet painted.  What a good ice breaker on the first day.

This was an idea I saw at the last minute.  We used googly eyes and skipped the arms and legs.  It's original title was Hot Stuff, but we started calling it the Silly Chili.

 

Ball & Cup Game

I saw many, many variations of the ball and cup game.  Our final version was the fake Solo cups from the Dollar Store since they are a little smaller around and easier for little hands to hold.

Using a regular hole punch, I punched holes in the top side for the string instead of the bottom.  It was MUCH MUCH easier and for the younger kids the swing from the top was easier to manage.  For the ball we used wooden "wheels" that had been donated years ago.

The kids painted the wheels and decorated the cup with sticky foamies.  The teachers tied it together.  Fun.

Sombrero

This turned out nearly identical to the original idea, which is good since I did not get any photos of ours.  We used the yellow paper cups and dessert plates from the Dollar Tree.  I pre-glued them together with hot glue.

We had ribbon and lace for the kids to wrap around the cup.  Then pom poms for the rim of the paper plate.  It was cute, but kind of pointless except as a decoration.  If I did it again I think I would use dinner plates and cut out the circle under the cup so they could at least pretend to wear it.

Another round of Fiesta Crafts coming soon.

Air Dry Clay

As soon as I picked Fiesta for a camp theme I knew I wanted to make clay pots.  But I did not want to make homemade clay that was not 100% sure to work or to dry within the 4 day camp.

I checked out my options at the craft stores and found this:  Air Dry Clay.  The name says it all.  I was still a bit leary since there were not any real instructions included.  This was definitely a project that needed to be tested.

 I divided the 10 pound box into 1/2 pound sections and sealed them each in a ziploc bag.

Little S got one to test.  It was easy to work with, easy to clean up and easy enough to rework as she changed her mind.  She made 3D shapes, rolled and cut with cookie cutters, and added holes for hanging with straws and toothpicks.  It was about the same messiness as PlayDoh or maybe even less.

We left it out on a styrofoam plate to dry.  Within 36 hours it was completely dry.  The box had said it would dry white and it did.

Since this was a brand new activity we only had the 4- and 5-year-olds do it.  It turned out that the 1/2 pound sections were plenty big for the camp kids to make a little pinch pot. 

One class pushed gems and jewels into their pots and those came out amazing.  The other class painted theirs.    Also, super successful.

During the school year we traditionally use Model Magic during dinosaur week.  That is truly as anticlimatic as a project can get.  Model Magic is about $1 per child and it is very difficult to manipulate.  I can definitely see us using the Air Dry Clay in the future.  Much cheaper - $10 before the coupon, which turned out to about 25 cents per child and the kids could actually use it.  Since I had gotten a second box once I knew it worked, we do have some leftover to start with.  I sealed the individually wrapped clay in an additional zip bag and according to the box that should keep it fresh or just add a bit of water to moisten it up again.

My only regret is that I did not get photos of the finished camps products since it was not in my classroom and not on my radar.  These photos are from the web and pretty accurately represent what we made.

I can see us using this to make Christmas ornaments at home and at school.  I'm also thinking Shark ornaments for Middle E's high school swim team.  The possibilities are endless.

Hola

The kids had a lot of fun learning words in Spanish.  It wasn't much since they were only three but the ones who were into it really got it, which is true of any lesson.  The older classes had a bit more success, which is also to be expected.

Our camp themes are very different from our school themes so I borrow books from the public library to cover the literacy aspect.  We had quite a few good books for this camp.  I really liked the ones that mix English and Spanish naturally so you can't help but understand. 

Dragons Love Tacos was super fun and inspired the felt taco / Mexican restaurant activity.  Build a Burrito is from our home library and actually worked better for the 2- and 3-year-olds.  

paper for the 2-year-olds

The 2-year-old made one taco/burrito and glued it down to prevent stuff from going into their mouths.

felt for the 3, 4, 5-year olds

The 3, 4 and 5-year-olds had the reusable felt restaurant

Ooops!  We're running out of lettuce!

Bienvenidos

FIESTA CAMP was a lot of fun.

My favorite project was the Silly Chili / Hot Stuff painted foot.  Even on the first day of camp the kids got right into having their foot painted and no one refused.  That's a big deal with 3-year-olds, some of whom  you've never met before.

More Fiesta Camp projects coming in the near future!

Adios

Amazing Classroom in Action Again

It's been a long time since I last posted. I liked the idea of documenting what we do in class but then life just got out of hand. This summer as I've done a lot of school stuff I've been thinking I need to make a conscious effort to try again. 

So here it goes....

Tomorrow is the last day of Fiesta Camp. This camp turned out amazing in ways we never imagined and it is my last responsibility before the regular school year starts so I think it is a good "re-starting" point.  

Check back in a few days and I'll have a recap of the week and some detailed projects ready to share.  

Hasta luego!