2 science camps keep everyone very busy and excited

fluid migration and color mixing

What explain we had this week. Both groups made all kinds of crystals, and delved in earth science, space science, and using household items to create a lot of fun. The kids were amazed that we were using table salt, Epsom salts, baking soda and vinegar, shaving cream, cornstarch, and water for so many of of their creations. I have links to many of the recipes I use this week and I will post them below. I will also add a link to all of the pictures that we took at camp in addition to some small selection here.

borax crystals

 http://chemistry.about.com/od/crystalsforbeginners/tp/Easy-Crystal-Growing-Recipes.htm --borax crystals on chenille stems

epson salt crystals

 http://www.hometrainingtools.com/quick-crystal-project/a/1687/--epsom salt crystals

http://candy.about.com/od/hardcandyrecipes/r/rock_candy.htm--rock candy-- thin wood sticks in test tubes

making goop or oobleck

snowball fight outside
http://www.playcreateexplore.com/2012/08/summer-snowball-fight-with-fluffy-stuff.html
goop--http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/ooze.html

clay landform and sand

clay #3 http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryactivities/a/modeling_clay_recipes.htm

erupting volcano

solution to launch corks--soda bottle 12oz works well, 4-6 oz vinegar, 1Tbs baking soda wrapped in tissue, cork, plastic wrap

erupting volcano--soda bottle 12oz works well, 4-6 oz vinegar, 1Tbs baking soda, 2-3 drops Dawn detergent, food colors
colored water experiment (jr)  http://wemadethat.blogspot.com/2013/03/water-transfer-experiment.html

Paper casting using white envelopes

snowball fight

space ship from tomato container

Pictures from camps:

imploding a can 

Day 1   Day 2
Day 3 jr
Day 3

Insects-bugs, butterflies, bees Day 1 @ WB MUD

Today started off raining but that did not phase our artists. We worked on a lot of different kinds of bugs--insects and arachnids--drawing them, gluing them, painting them and examining them. I was lucky over the last week to find a lot of different bugs to put into containers for camp. I know the kids get to look at pictures at school but there is something super fun about looking at real ones. Each camper was given a magnifying glass to use in examining the bugs--butterflies, moths, a moth chrysalis, a beetle, a pair of stink bugs, and a few clay bugs I made up yesterday. We also have a great supply of books from the library to look at and use for reference.
We spent time drawing several of the bugs--trying to make them realistic as possible. The littler campers did fingerprint bugs too. All of them made bug jars from spice jars and pompoms. we will use them this week to store the bugs we catch. We also fashioned bugs from plastic eggs and glitter foam sheets. Kids do like glitter, so much that the dragonflies got a good coat of glitter paint to customize them. Only 2 more days to go.

Drawing & Painting art camp is a hit @WB MUD

Today was fantastic in getting to know our campers and what they like to do with art. We started with some special paper and fluorescent markers to do our interpretation of Picasso's guitars from his musical period. The markers develop over an hour or two into very intense colors. We reviewed the drawings at the end of the day to many WOWs. Great variety of guitars from the group. We then switched to drawing and painting on a small fabric bag. Neighbors shared beautiful shells for camp so we had them on the tables as reference. It is harder to draw from a 3-D object than a flat picture. They then painted them with fabric paints and except for a few "baths" the projects came off without a hitch. Kids learned how to get just the look they wanted on their bags. Tomorrow we'll add small shells. Our last project was taking sheet music and drawing stories on it. I found this on Pinterest and have to love the Russian art movement producing them. The kids started on their folder covers and some free draw time plus a session of "draw with me" of a very fat fish with fins. Got in a bit of commercial and science about fish to boot.
Here are links to the facebook albums until I can finish the camp pages. We have had so much fun this week and are looking forward to the remaining weeks of art camp. Space is still open in all camps.  Painting & Drawing art camp day 1   Painting & drawing camp day 2    Painting & drawing day 3   

Making TP tube animals @WBCL

 It is fun to look for ways to use household items more creatively and TP tubes have has no end of uses. I did up some examples to start the project and pulled up a couple of bags of scrap fun foam and tiny pompoms. I purposely left mine uncolored or decorated to get them to use their imaginations and they really did. Parents hot glue parts for the kids or with the kids and sometimes did cutting. A great group project.

Paper castings @WBCL

 Trying to do a bit of a different kind of paper project with this one. I used donated white envelopes and popped the paper into the vitamin to make the pulp before class so I could drain some of the water. In class we had the families chose which cookie cutter they wanted to use and spooned the pulp into them. The kids and parents pressed the water out using their fingers and sponges until the paper pulp was as compacted as they could get it. We then sprinkled the project with glitter and gave each one last press to embed the glitter, transfered the project to a paper towel, and removed the cutters. The casting dries in a few days and can be glued to a card or hung.