Another SMU Art camp done, and so much colourful kid-masterpieces to show for it. This week of full day art camp was designed much like my last camp. A few major projects, and lots of “free art” time for the kids to make jewelry, try record player drawing, use water colours, make melt beads creations, make magnets and pins, or just draw and colour.
We kicked it off with these beautiful wire gardens, or molecular/galactic inspired sculptures. I brought in paint, wood bases wire and Styrofoam balls, and the kids went to town. Some painted them as planets, and some in all the colours they could get. I thought they looked incredible when they were all together!
The next day, I brought in branches on wood stump bases, that the kids would decorate as trees. They used wire, beads, felt, silk flowers, feathers, sparkles and sequins, pipe-cleaners, and shrinky dink to adorn their trees with beauty. What a magical little forest! We also made a giant chalk mural outside on the playground. After a group discussion on ideas for the mural, and then a vote on which theme to pursue, the kids all went outside and harmoniously worked in collaboration on this amazing mural! Some of the boys decided to use the sky portion of the mural to set the scene for their battle between monsters and aliens. Pretty scary!
Another fun activity we did was a game I invented called “Painting musical Chairs” I could probably think of a better name, but you get the picture. Each kid draws from a hat their tool for the activity. I have 12 jars of water colours, a box of crayons, a salt shaker and a water sprayer. With each kid having a jar of paint, 2 crayons, or salt or water, they walk around the tables until the music stops. When it stops, they add something to paper in front of them. By the end, there are 24 (one for each kid) works of art. Each one different, and each on a collaborative effort. I decided to cut up the finished paintings into 2.5” x 3.5” sizes, to make Artist Trading Cards. The next day, the kids rooted through all the new tiny canvases, picking one to use as backgrounds, or for their unique details to make and design cards of their own. I told them all about trading cards, and when our final art show came around on the last day, it was also a “trade show” where the kids displayed all their cards and traded them with one another. It was so fun to watch, and of course I made a small stack of cards myself throughout the week, so I could trade cards too.