This final day of camp was a little chaotic. We had to start lots of projects at the same time in order to get them to dry and be able to complete them. We started today by reviewing some of the facts and information about birds and nesting birds in Texas. We talked about the packet we would make for the birds to use in building nests. We also reviewed examples of dozens of gourd birdhouses before they began their projects. The campers selected the colors that they wanted to use to paint their birdhouses. There were a variety of different sizes and shapes of gourds that my friend Shelley gave us for this camp. We were able to utilize the tops of egg cartons in order to not get paint all over our drawings on the table. Every camper did their own take on what they thought would attract birds to their birdhouse.
We did a crushed eggshell base for a hummingbird painting. Each of the students selected a drawing of a hummingbird, cut it out, and pasted it to a piece of foam core board. We then covered the picture with tacky glue and they pressed on eggshells so that they would have a crackled surface. We set this aside to dry then colored them with bright colored markers. This project did not turn out as well as I expected but the campers were happy.
We also covered our surface for the scratch out using either crayons or dark-colored oil pastels. To complete the project they scratched out what looked like twigs for the nest all around the outside and then used a palette knife to scrape out 3 to 5 eggs inside the nest. They then colored the eggs with blue or pink pastel.
At every point the campers wanted to get back and finish painting their birdhouses. The idea of letting them air dry if there was a hair dryer available was not an acceptable option.
The two remaining projects were first to create a nesting materials bag from the mesh vegetable bags that I've been collecting filled with short pieces of yarn and string. Each end was secured with twist ties so it can be refill and attached a pipe cleaner on the end so it could be hung out for the birds.
The final project was to create birdseed reefs or bird food wreaths for the students to hang out in their yards at home. For this we again follow the directions I used to create these in January. I found this on Pinterest and it worked out quite well. This time we used fluted yogurt cups as our container. I had lots of help mixing up the ingredients much like a science project and then the students helped each other fill their cups, pressed the mixture in tightly, and made a hole using a pencil so that it could be hung on a ribbon.
Lastly they removed all of the items from their three ring binder and transfer them to the gray folder that they had decorated during the week. We punched extra holes along the edges so that they could hang the bookmark from
Jeanette Johnson and other items like the nest bag and note bird. When we do this again we will definitely include constructing a pocket on both the inside front and back of the folder so that loose items can be more easily secured.
bird camp day 3
Book list for the week:
1. Charming Handmade Clay crafts2. Creative Stamping in Polymer Clay3. Draw 50 birds4. Essential origami5. Hummingbirds: hovering in nature6. Making books that fly, fold, wrap, hide, pop up, twist, and turn:books for 7. Paper Quilling for the First Time8. Quilling for Scrapbooks & Cards
1. Backyard birds of Texas: how to identify and attract the top 25 birds2. The birds of Texas3. The book of North American owls4. Hawks5. Pink!
Oh wow the swirly trees turned out really good! I had the kids draw them first with lots of swirling branches then block them in with black crayon. Next made a dozen or twenty circles with white crayon then the COLOR. They got to choose their own chalk pastel colors and make dual colored dollops and grass. A couple of the kids who came in late are finishing their branches at home but good work. 
Not your usual groundhog project! 
Using 1/4 page of construction paper we drew a fat little groundhog and then glued the 2 sides together with a stick in the middle. 
We moved on to the medieval period and discussed lettering in bibles and important documents and how they were decorated by the scribes with scenes or items relevant to the person. We used wood blocks given to me by the HOTT tole painters group that we had primed in gold for the campers.
Our last project was a fabric painting of an ancient Indian elephant with a lot of gold trim. Because I wanted them to concentrate on drawing the details on the elephant and painting it, the pattern was on their fabric. 
2nd day we moved on to looking at and discussing impressionists, well known artists and pointillism. We started with a tape resist and did a finger painted Monet bridge in his garden. Some of them were not very comfortable with the finger painting only tapping but in the end most did pretty well. the magic was when we pulled the tape off. the oooh and aaahs! 
Lastly we used an unknown artist as an example and did a very different technique with them. It is a tree with lights in it on a moonlight background. We used the four colors without cleaning our foam brush--scary to not wash your brush!! We then drew the tree in with lots of branches and did dot on dot for our lights. It was really quick and they did a fantastic job. Always goes too fast.
We had so much fun and made such a MESS! We started looking at beaches and talking about them then each camper designed a beach scene on a 4" pot. They tried out snow-tex and all kinds of paint spreading and applying. Every pot was so different. 
We next kept to the beaches theme and drew and painted a sea shell on a small tote bag. They had small shells to hold and draw onto the bag then paint. The kids really got into the texture so it got on these too. 
We started out with a bit of a history lesson about who Martin Luther King was and then I read part of his speech to the kids. I had made up a sample with the circle in the middle, printing I have a dream, three faces to color, and then a few of the colored hands in a circle around The edges. Some of the kids got very very detailed in their drawings and their colorings. We were fortunate to have a donation of people colored crayon to use for this project.
This group is in love with the slice and dice moves. We set up our own slice and dice table with 3 dicers, 3 cutting boards, and a number of small knives. Little did we know that the slice and dice activity would be as popular (or more) than making the food projects. Thanks to neighbors for loaning us crinkle cutters this week. Pickles, cucumber and celery are so much more interesting if the edge is all crinkly. The pictures tell it all although the scrap crust cinnamon mountains were a real hit.
The group competed to make the best veggie skeleton then voted on each others and awarded most colorful, most variety and most unique. It was fun to see the skeleton families--including pets. Most of the skeletons didn't make it past judging as we are a hungry group. The egg critters were also fun and didn't last long. I got to take a couple home but from the egg monster with a carrot center to the egg under trees with 4 baby eggs to the bunny egg we had fun with our food. We used a few cookbooks for kids from the library: The international cookbook for kids, The kids' multicultural cookbook: food around the world, and a couple of mine including Pizza Art.
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.
The final project was to create birdseed reefs or bird food wreaths for the students to hang out in their yards at home. For this we again follow the directions I used to create these in January. I found this on Pinterest and it worked out quite well. This time we used fluted yogurt cups as our container. I had lots of help mixing up the ingredients much like a science project and then the students helped each other fill their cups, pressed the mixture in tightly, and made a hole using a pencil so that it could be hung on a ribbon.
