anyone have ideas for arts in crafs projects for a little kids camp?
i am doing an arts n’ crafts project in the summer and i need ideas that wont cost me a lot…like not more than 3 bux a child because otherwise i wont make money..does anyone have ideas..please?
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The Kids' Multicultural Art Book: Art and Craft Experiences from Around the World (Williamson Kids Can Books)For ages 4-8. An exciting hands-on feast of multicultural art and craft experiences. With this book, children learn by doing -- reaching across contin... Read More >
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use these sites for ideas. I use them a lot. they’re all free and use everyday things like paper plates and construction paper.
There are loads of on-line sites for ideas and how-tos that you can research, and some of them even have helpful info like cost breakdowns.
How old are the kids you’re working with? How old are you? How many kids will you be working with at a time? And are you alone, or do you have helper(s)?
Some of the things I’ve done in your situation are these:
First, buy second-hand from thrift shops (or scrounge from friends and family) things like old thread, yarn, novelty papers (such as all those irrationally-saved foil wrappers from Easter eggs, unwanted wrapping-papers, and the like), half-empty glitter bottles and glitter-glue, bits of fabric, bags of old sea-shells and wine-corks, old crayons, street chalk, anything that catches your eye, is useable at your camp, and is cheap. Sort through it all, decide on specific projects, and set aside the amounts you need for each.
Then, invest in a basic A&C kit, containing enough glue, scissors, materials, plain paper, paint, string, yarn, pop-sticks, tooth-picks, paper-plates, small paper bags, roll of aluminum-foil, lots of colored markers & crayons, whatever, for all the classes you’ll be running. Buy in bulk for cheaper prices. Don’t go overboard, decide in advance what you’ll need, and how much of each.
Collect support materials: old spaghetti-jar lids for individual glue dishes, flattened-out plastic cereal-box liners for painting mats, lots of clean-up rags, child-size bibbed aprons or old T-shirts (for kids to wear while painting), cheap paint-brushes, etc. Get these for free as much as possible: be fair to friends and family, give them some notice, so they have time to look for their un-used stuff, or to save up stuff for you (like jar lids).
Face-painting. Buy an inexpensive set-or-three of NON-TOXIC watercolor paints, and a few artist’s-size brushes (like, thin, medium, and fat). Paint the kids’ faces, or let them paint each others’ faces.
Pop-Stick Flutter-Puppets: Get a bunch of clean wooden pop-sticks, and drill a hole in one end of each. Cut a bunch of threads or strings, about 1-1/2 to 2 times the length of the pop-sticks. Draw outline shapes of “fluttery” figures on paper — such as butterflies, bees and other insects; flying birds; ghosts; flags, even pirate flags; daisies; airplanes; etc — and photocopy as many as you’ll need, plus “just in case” extras. Adapt outline designs from kids’ coloring books, if you can’t draw well.
Have each kid choose a figure, color it (on both sides, if they can), and cut it out. Then they can glue/tape/tie one end of a cut string to the top of their figure, and tie the other end to the pop-stick. When finished, the stick is a handle they can wave around, and the figure flutters in the breeze.
Use wiggly-eyes on all sorts of things, the kids will love them. You could invest in some magnet-tape and wobbly-eyes, and use natural items and found objects from the camp-ground as the bodies — nuts and large seeds, pebbles, flakes of bark (from the ground, of course!), bottle-caps, sea-shells, even leaves (you coat them front and back with glue for strength, or back them with paper — flat dried leaves work best). The wobbly-eyes get glued wherever they look best, then markers are used to draw in details, and a magnet cut from the strip is glued on back, or glue on a felt pad for heavy things like rocks. Make sure any magnet actually holds the object up.
Paper crafts: loads of ideas on the internet. Do Origami, if any of the kids are old enough. Ditto for making paper from scratch (or recycled paper).
Also if the kids are old enough: Genius Kits. Give each child a paper bag full of “little nothings” — a couple of pop-sticks, a few tooth-picks, a pine cone, 2-3 plastic bottle-caps, two pipe-cleaners, some seed-heads from the camp-ground, a square of al-foil, a square of colored cellophane, two or three pom-poms, some string and/or yarn, half a paper plate, whatever, and however much these kids can work with in one session.
Each kit must be exactly the same. Within your class-time, each kid makes something using all of the bits in the Genius Kit, including the paper bag. No sharing or trading of items with other kids, no adding anything, no throwing anything out. You provide glue, scissors, and coloring materials as you see fit. Award little prizes at the end, for things like “The Tallest,” “The Smallest,” “The Most Colorful,” “The Most Natural-Looking,” “Used up ALL Their Bits,” “The Strongest” (or “Holds Together The Best”), and so on. Prizes can be single wrapped candies, al-foil “medals,” or similar.
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