All Ages: Botany and Tree Activity Prints

The block prints were such a hit last summer that I had to bring it back again!

This time I had the students design a botany scene or symbolism for an outdoor event held at the Tree. The George School tree is basically the school mascot. Tree is a time set aside everyday after lunch for all groups to meet for announcements, activities, and fore exciting cheer and events.  

I cut circles from the tops and bottoms of togo boxes to serve as the "stamp" that students were to design.  When you draw into one of these porous squares, it pushes down from the pressure and creates a low relief stamp. Once students were happy with their stamp, they were sent over to an inking station where they would use ink rollers on their stamp and make 2 prints. Students would be printing using one of two selected green block printing ink. One print was donated to make up the collaborative print, the second they could keep. Large prints were created is small groups to form bonds between the international students from the ESL Horizons Camp and regular campers. It was a fantastic communication and cultural learning experience for all of the kids.

10-14 Year Olds: Ceramic Pinch Pot Cupcakes

This summer I was blessed with access to work with clay and 2 firing sessions! Hooray!

The director selected the older girl groups to try out working with clay, and what a success it was- I can't wait to include clay working with all ages next year!

After I took a poll with a few clay-working projects, the vast majority of girls wanted to make cupcakes!

We started by using a silicone molds for the bottom of the cupcakes to get the zigzag textured effect. I sprayed them lightly with WD-40 so the clay wouldn't stick. Students started by making a small pinch pot on the table and transferring them to the molds until desired shape was achieved.

The next step was to make a second pinch pot for the top of the cup cake. This one was made by hand without a mold, we put a coil along the inside of the top pinch pot to keep it from sliding off the base pinch pot once fired. Students decorated the top of the cup cake with different shapes like cherries and sprinkles before the firing.

Once the pieces were fired, we painted them with acrylic paint and allowed to dry. We finished them off  Modge-Podge to make them shine. They looked fantastic!

All Ages: World Cup T Shirts

Every summer during camp, the kids are ecstatic for our camp-wide World Cup to begin!

Now if you are unfamiliar with what the World Cup is about, it's an international soccer tournament held each year with every team competing for the title. At the beginning of camp each team of campers, with the help of their counselor, choose a country that their team is representing. They compete against similar age leveled teams with the title being announced at the end.   

As the art teacher, I've taken over the responsibility to help each group execute their uniform/T-shirt design in the best possible way! In terms of media used, teams have chosen to use tye-dye, puffy paint and fabric spray paint. Below you will see a little bit of the process, as well as the form I created to help with the material purchases. 

A finished ITALIA shirt!