Kids Summer Art Camp- Need Project Ideas

[anafelix]

I'm part of a local art guild and last year I was roped into helping conduct a kids day camp. We called it the "Green Art Camp" and even had the local summer school join us several days over the 2 weeks that it ran. We decided to conduct it again this summer since it was such a hit last year.

I'm looking for crafts that take 30 minutes to an hour and appeal to 3rd and 4th graders (most of the crafts I've found are for toddlers and would be entirely too simple). The supplies can't be outrageously expensive because we expect around 30 kids most days.

I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide because the camp is in June and I definitely don't think I have enough projects, even though I've been looking since December. Thanks so much!!

[Painted Sparrow]

I've been thinking about pitching something like this for a volunteer thing I've started doing at the local hospital's children ward. I haven't talked to the organizers about it, so I don't know if it would be oK or if you'd have to do it with normal markers, or even if it would work with normal markers, but I think it would be a ton of fun. They could do shirts, bandanas, scarves, pillow cases.

http://blog.sharpie.com/2008/11/sharpie-to-tie-dye-for/

Most people have Sharpies or other markers around their homes I'm sure they could donate or loan, & rubbing alcohol is reasonable.

I feel like I should note that I'm terrible at knowing good crafts for certain age groups, so I may be completely wrong on if your age group would enjoy it, but it's worth a shot.

[anafelix]

I've seen this around, but totally hadn't even thought about it. This is a great idea though! We did tie-dye (the real deal with dyes and t-shirts) with a smaller group and they went crazy for it, some kids even came back a few hours later with more shirts. I definitely think this is age appropriate, and much much cheaper than traditional tie-dye (and cleaner!!).

And I don't know much about volunteering at a hospital, but I know for our organization the kids camp was a great way to bring younger people in, get them excited about art, and bring parents in that hadn't even heard about the gallery. Anything you do with kids is great community outreach.

[JS]

Painting rocks (paper weights) and crafts that involve pinecones are popular with my sons.

[Yizzimindi]

I still remember when I was in school one day the art teacher brought her mum in, we made stuffed dice from squares of felt which we decorated with more felt and glue. We were also taught how to weave and made a little flappy pocket bag. Big plastic needles for yarn are much easier for kids to thread, especially if you put a bit of glue on the end first, also they are much less likely to stab themselves =P . If you think they will have trouble poking the needle through the felt you can use a hole punch to make the holes for them. You could also make teddy and doll shapes from canvas, get the kids to decorate them with paints and teach them to make their own toys!