Day 5: Conclusion of Senior High Camp

Snake hat.

 Friday was a bittersweet day in Rockland- the last day of crafts for Senior High camp...
Cézanne made an appearance and the campers continued to enjoy holding him and learning about his snakey ways. AJ's head became a resting place for the little guy. Too funny.

The last day of crafts was the perfect time to introduce a new project: luminaries. 
I froze about 20 large cans two days before and filled them with sand before freezing. This created a core for the campers to work with. The next step was to gather up hammers and nails from maintenance and have the campers draw up designs to transfer to the cans. The most challenging part was keeping the designs in place while working. I will have to find a different surface for the future projects..

Luminaries - starting to take shape

The campers had to adhere their designs to the can and then use the hammer and nails to pound holes into the can. This created the luminary design that would be lit up by the candle. Most campers tried tape but when that didn't work they just rolled the designs onto the wet can and that worked out well.

Finding just the right beads..

A lot of campers opted to continue to work on the bead sun catchers. I would say we made about 100 on Friday afternoon alone! Some of the campers put words and picture beads into their designs as they worked. Pretty cool surprise activity for these campers!

Design transfer process

Some campers worked a LOT faster than others, but on average it took about an hour to complete the luminaries. The campers then used them to light up the night at their banquet! It was perfect :)

Checking progress. She did a really cool handprint one!

Brenda says... MY NAME IS NOT BRENDA, GORDON!

We had to bake the bead sun catchers in the toaster oven. NOTE: the fumes are very unpleasant and not very good for you to breathe in. I put a fan on the oven and opened all the windows, doors, and plugged in MORE fans to circulate air. Safety first, fuses last!

The finished product!

One of the camp deans made this one. And she said she wasn't artsy..

The hand design I mentioned earlier. She worked really hard on this!

I just love seeing the cubby wall full :)

Close up - look at all those sun catchers!

Reflection: After all was said and done, and Rockland was sufficiently trashed, the campers picked up their work and went to enjoy their banquet.
I believe this camp was very successful, but I also think it forced me to make changes to my lesson plans and project planning strategies! From day one the campers had my full attention, but when they didn't they gave up on the project or worked on something else or sometimes left. I learned the importance of attention and organization (especially that!). The more organized the project steps and supplies were the more engaged the campers were. Sometimes it was really hard to organize the projects fast enough for the campers - some of them worked very fast and demanded projects ASAP.
I also was making the mistake of limiting the campers to only my pre-planned 'senior high crafts'. After I introduced the sun catcher activity, which was originally meant for junior high, I had twice as many campers in Rockland as before! Throughout the week it was really fun to see the kids carrying around their looms working on weaving and proudly displaying their other creations for other campers to see.
Some kids even came up to me and thanked me for making crafts 'relevant' and 'useful' to them and their lives. More than a few of them had mentioned the previous craft lady's issues and that her projects were often difficult. I received a great deal of praise and thanks and a perfect performance observation from my boss! All good things :)

Today: Today will be the first day of crafts with Science Explorations camp!
Apparently we are making the universe.. out of paper, paint, and macramé.. Color me impressed! These counselors are something else!

Craftermath!

Until next post,

Ms. K