Ideas needed

[lissy]

I am working on plans for a 10 week summer camp for school aged children. I usually work with preschool aged children, so this is new to me. Any ideas for crafts, large muscle, music or stories would be greatly appreciated. I would also like to involve the children in something that will benefit other children, I have a few ideas in mind, does anyone have any suggestions that will allow these children to know the joy of helping other children. Thanks a bunch!!

[jessarain]

I would suggest checking out http://www.ssww.com for great craft kits and ideas. Also check out the chicken soup books for some great stories. I think thier is even a Chicken Soup for the Preteens Soul. I hope this is helpful and good luck!

[Diane]

Yarn Art

You Need:

Scraps of yarn
2 Straight sticks (both the same length)
Scissors
Sandpaper

This project is quick, easy and inexpensive. Long sticks make a large design, short sticks make a small design. Use many colors of yarn or just a few; be creative.

PREPARATION :

Select two sticks that are fairly straight and about the same length (or trim to length). Sand ends of sticks to reduce and sharpness. Lay one stick crosswise over the other. Begin to wrap first color of yarn around one way then the other and make a knot. Let yarn hang down from knot; do not trim.

Turn sticks over so that knot is in the back. Begin to wrap yarn. Bring yarn from behind stick and wrap it around the first stick and over to the next stick (B).

Then continuing wrap it around next stick front to back and back around to next stick (C). Same on the next stick (D) and the next (E). Just keep wrapping the yarn and soon a pattern will appear.

To change color of yarn, give an extra wrap of yarn to the stick where you want to change colors and tie the new color to the old securely, making sure knot is in back of design, not front. Change colors as often as you wish or not at all. Multicolor yarns make interesting designs too. To finish off design, double knot yarn to stick you want to end at and trim.
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Macrame` Bracelets
You Need:

Scraps of yarn
Straight pins
Piece of foam core approx. 8" x 14" (or corrugated cardboard)
Scissors

This project is quick, easy and inexpensive. Extra care should be used when working with pins. This is not a project for small children.

PREPARATION of Twisted Knot Bracelet (red and yellow):

First select two colors for bracelet. Cut one 22" piece and one 36" piece of each color. (You should wind up with four strings; two long, two short) For our example we used red and yellow. Lay your strings with ends matching and colors separated. (yellow, red, yellow, red) The two longest strings should be on the outsides and the two shorter strings in the center. At the end that all the strings match up evenly, tie all four strings into one big knot (much like tying a balloon.) Using a straight pin, pin the strings by the knot to the end of the foam core.


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Wave Maker
You Need:

Clear, empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle
Vegetable oil
Food coloring
Water


A simple project with a scientific lesson about density and lots of fun to play with too!


PREPARATION :

Start with a clear, clean empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle. Fill half way with water. Add drops of food color to desired color (twist top on and shake to combine color). Adding more color if necessary. Any color will do we used blue (like the ocean) and we recommend to stay away from yellow because the oil is already yellow. Add vegetable oil to fill (all except about an inch on the top). Seal bottle tightly with cap.

You are now ready to experiment. Swirl the bottle while it's standing up or lay it down on its side and rock back and forth to create "waves". You will find many interesting things to do with it. Try creating large bubbles by turning the bottle top over bottom a few times. Really shake it up to create milions of tiny bubbles. Look into the depths of the bottle when it has so many tiny bubbles with an "unfocused" gaze to get a holographic type effect. It also really looks great when lit from behind. Hold it up to the window on a sunny day to get an even more colorful effect.

Sometimes the oil gets a little cloudy when you've been playing with your wave maker alot. Just let it sit still for several hours or days and the oil will eventually return to normal.

[Diane]

I tried posting this with my other one but it told me I couldn't post that much at one time... (????) so I'm posting this seperate... Hope these idea's help!

Cold Water Tie Dye
You Need:

Cold Water Dye 3 pkgs - all different colors (available at craft/fabric stores)
Water
3/4 cup Salt
T-Shirts 100% cotton (we made 3 adult and 2 children sized shirts)
Rubber gloves
Plastic bags (ziploc-type or other totally sealable)
Large Rubber bands
Bottles with squirt-type top (we used squeeze-type old plastic mustard bottles)
Old craft-bowls or buckets (one large one medium)
Funnel
Lots of newspapers, paper towels, old trays or pans to work on.

Cold water tie dye brings a classic craft back with a much safer and easier method.

PREPARATION :

*Be sure to review and follow manufacturer's precautions and first aid directions when using Cold Water Dyes.

Make sure to use only 100% cotton shirts with no finishes (ie. scotchguard). Mixed blend shirts will still pick up the dye, but not quite as well.

First prepare your T-shirts by washing them (if they're new) and leaving damp. If it's not possible to leave the shirt damp after washing, just dampen the shirts before you begin. Remember we want the shirts damp not soaking wet. So be sure to wring shirts out.

Then assemble your work area. Lay plenty of newspaper out on worksurface. This craft can get extremely messy and very staining so be careful. We recommend to do the actual dying of the shirts in some sort of old tray due to the amount of dye coming off the shirt during preparation. Also keep plenty of paper towels on hand. We highly recommend using rubber gloves during this project while handling the fixer, dyes, and saturated shirts. And also recommend the use of old clothes-just in case

Prepare Dye Colors:

In old medium bowl or pitcher-type container mix 1-1/2 cups of warm water with package of first color of dye mix. Stir till dissolved. Using a funnel carefully pour dye into prelabeled bottle with squirt-type tops Any extra dye store to side in a sealed container. Repeat with remaining two colors, placing them each in their own prelabeled bottles.

Prepare Fixer:

In old large bowl or bucket pour 6 cups hot water, 3/4 cup of salt and 3 packages of Cold Dye Fix from the Cold Water Dye packages. Stir to dissolve.

TYING SHIRT:

Make sure to start with a damp shirt. Lay shirt flat and gently grab center of shirt pulling up and holding shirt by center point. With other hand smooth shirt down into a snake-like shape


Wrap first rubberband anywhere from 2-3" from top. To do this wrap band around shirt, then twist, then wrap again, twist again etc (like making a pony tail). Continue wrapping rubberbands on shirt at intervals of anywhere from 2-3" apart and as tight as possible without breaking along entire length of shirts.

BEGINNING THE DYE PROCESS:

Wearing rubber gloves, soak shirts in fixer solution for a five minutes. Squeeze shirt gently so that it is damp but not soaking wet. Lay shirt in preparation tray. Begin applying colors as desired. You may want to begin by just turning the bottle over to sort of drip on the shirt until you gauge how fast your color is coming out of the bottle. The placement of the color is up to you. Little streaks of color here and there or make the gap between each rubber band a different color; which is what we did. Turn shirt over to color bottom side too.

Make sure shirt is totally saturated with the colors because its hard to get the colors deep down in the shirt. You may want to press tip of bottle deep into shirt to saturate center of shirt. A lot of dye will end up in the pan, but that's to be expected.

When your finished with your design. Place shirt in a plastic bag and seal completely. Let set 24 hours.

FINISHING:

After 24 hours, remove from bag (while again wearing gloves). Rinse, undo ties and rinse again. Soak in pan of hot soapy water 10 minutes. Rinse again till water runs clear and lay flat to dry. The first time you wash the shirts, wash them separately from other laundry with a cup of white vinegar in the load.

Enjoy your wearable art!

You can have more or less colors than we used in our project. For two colors reduce the hot water mixed with the fixer to 6 cups and the salt to 1/2 cup and 2 pkgs of cold dye fix. To have more than 3 colors you may not need to adjust the amounts depending on how many T-Shirts you are dying. If you are doing quite a few shirts and there is not enough fixer solution, add 3 cups of water and 1/4 cup salt and one package cold dye fix per color added.