August Summer Camp - Messy Fun

Spice Painting & Foam - We chose out some yummy smelling spices to put in our paint tray.  Then the kiddos painted the table and the foaming bubbles with spice paint.

Foamy Bubbles - I mixed up a batch or two of foam (some water, squirt of dish soap, a few minutes in the Kitchen-Aid on high) - so much fun!

Glitter Goo - Using the glue and Borax recipe, we made glitter goo.  Some kiddos loved it, others did not.  It is a weird texture to play with.  Very sticky.

Sponge Boats - So darn cute!  These turned out fabulous.  I saw these on this blog.

Boat Races - Sort Of - Drat!  Apparently sponge boats are cute, but not so functional.  They filled right up with water in the pool and then sunk.  Dang!  Ha! - (The blog I got these from used foam sponges instead, I'll have to try those next time)

We also tried to float them down a tinfoil river, but they got kinda stuck.  Oh well, we had fun trying and we learned together!  

Jello Finger Paint - Yummers!  I mixed jello packets with a smidge of warm water and let the kiddos taste, paint and create.  The kiddos enjoyed licking their paintings.  Ha!

Ooblek - We made ooblek (cornstarch and water) for the kiddos to play with.  It is weird stuff to play with: it'll ooze through your fingers, but if you punch it, it's hard.

Worms - The kiddos came into the school today to find a pile of worms on the table...
"They taste like pasta."
"They taste like dirty."
"Don't eat real worms!"

 * Warning, many worms were consumed during this activity!*

 We worked a bit on spelling our names in worms.

Worm Tunnel - While we were playing and eating our pasta worms, we talked about where worms live and how they dig tunnels in the dirt.  So we decided we needed a tunnel of our own to "dig" through.

Edible Mud - We enjoyed chocolate popsicles and some yummy mud with our pasta worms.

Mud Play! - We were excited to find a real worm!

 The kiddos made a worm castle.

These girls were making a mud pie, they added some of the spaghetti noodles at worms,  They also made a castle with a moat.

 

Bubble Wands - The kiddos enjoyed lacing beads on their personal bubble wands.  The pipe cleaners really work great with bubbles.

Bubble Windows - These take a bit of patience to figure out, but once you do, you can create wonderful long bubbles.  So you put the window in the bubble solution "closed" (straws together), then you carefully lift it out and slowly open the window, there should be a bubble film.  Then you can blow it or walk backwards and get a long bubble.

Bubble Pipes - 3 straws taped together with a cloth on the end (all dollar store items).  When you blow through, you get a wonderful snake of bubbles.

Bubble Solution Recipe!

6 cups of water

1 cup corn syrup

2 cups Joy liquid dish soap

Gently stir together, then let sit for a day.  Then it's all ready to use!

Critter Ice - Here are our classroom animals all frozen in ice.  The kiddos had to figure out how to free them.  They tried throwing them on the sidewalk, salting them, floating in the pool and in the sunshine.

 Here are some that were salted.

 

Frozen Paint - I froze paint in ice cube trays and then popped them out on the table.  They got a bit squishy before anyone decided to give them a try.  So they were messy fun.

July Summer Camp - Ocean & Water Fun

Welcome to the ocean week of summer camp!  A week full of water play, crafts, science and more!

Driveway Fun - Water, chalk, and bubbles -  Really, what more does a kid need?

The kiddos were "melting" my chalk drawings.

Potion Making - Always a highlight.  I colored buckets of water and brought out all our cups, bowls, spoons, spice containers etc.

 

Painting Sea Shells -

Ocean Pockets - The kiddos painted their cartons on one day...

Then filled them with ocean bits on the next...

 

Mermaids - So many of the mermaid craft ideas are for older kiddos, this one was super cute but time intensive.  Ha! 

The kiddos painted their clothes pins, then with the help of the glue gun, we put them all together...

I found these super cute mermaids in several places, here is one blog.

Mermaid Necklaces - These are pretty fabulous.  I found the idea on this blog.

Cloud Dough - (Just 8 cups flour & 1 cup baby or vegetable oil) - The kiddos helped me make the dough, then we played.  It's very soft and squishy.

Pool - I love how the kiddos fill the pool with the toys, then gingerly step around them to scoop up water.  Ha!

Arrrgh!  Here be a bit a piracy at summer camp.

Treasure Boxes & Hunt - The kiddos decorated Altoid tins for their treasure boxes, then they were off on their hunt.  I made a map of the backyard for each of the kiddos.  Once they found their gold coin, they gathered to find their real treasure...

Fizzy Treasure  -  I made baking soda ice cubes with treasure frozen inside.  The kiddos got to use vinegar to help them free their treasure.  Delightfully Fizzy!  I found this wonderful idea on this blog.

Washing our Treasure - The kiddos washed the vinegar and baking soda from their treasure bits.

Edible Sand - The kiddos crushed vanilla wafers to create sand, then they sprinkled them onto their pudding to eat.  Yummers!  I found this idea on this blog.

The kiddos crushed their cookies with their hands, their feet or with a roller.

Shaving Cream - I reminded the kiddos that this is soap... but that didn't stop one of the boys from tasting it - yuckers!

Jello! - We had to do blue Jello with Swedish fish!  Yummers!

Foaming Bubbles - The kiddos enjoyed whipping up some bubbles with whisks and a little dish soap...