kid camp!

on Monday it was my turn to host kid camp. I decided to do art with the kids. my vision was to pick a few artists to focus on, and have the kids do art in their styles, then give them each a canvas to make a masterpiece. I choose Jackson Pollock, Henri Mattisse, and Van Gogh.

budding artists, all ready to learn!

we started by reading Action Jackson about Jackson Pollock. then we went outside and everyone worked together on a huge roll of butcher paper. we used finger paints instead of house paint and I told them they could use popsicle sticks, paintbrushes, sponges, grass, their hands, whatever they wanted.

I had set aside an hour for all of this, but the whole thing, book and painting, only took 30 minutes.

they were fast and furious.

and not as into getting dirty as I thought they'd be. though they got plenty dirty. we cleaned off with the hose, and I let them play as I set up for our next activity.

next we read Fancy Nancy Aspiring Artist. in it, she does art in the style of several different artists (just like us!) and I introduced the kids to henri mattisse, and drawing with scissors. they were so good at this one!

they each named their work and came up with some really clever names.

I let the younger crowd cut as best they could, and then I realized they weren't getting it at all, so I quickly cut a circle, square, and triangle out for them and let them arrange and glue them on their papers.

I was very impressed at everyone's creativity. no two were alike.

Frankie had a tough time with her mermaid. so I helped her on that one, but the fish was all her and it was fabulous.

addie's "Penny in Grass." Franks "Mermaid Catching a Fish," and Delaney's "Fun, Fun!"

 

I made macaroni and cheese for lunch, and then put emma to nap. then we read about Vincent van gogh, and they each picked one of his works they wanted to emulate. they surprised me by almost all of them picking to paint Irises. I thought they'd all pick Starry Night, and I tried to convince them to paint that one, but they insisted. I must have gotten busy at this time, because I didn't take one picture of them painting those.

addie's Irises, and another original laney ray. (I left right after kid camp, so I am not sure what happened to frankies irises.)

as they finished, I was sending them downstairs to play. but they were crazy! it had rained, and so I couldn't let them play outside.

so we decided to take a movie break and watch Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I popped 6 bags of popcorn and they still wanted more!

after the movie I let them pick one artist to focus on for their masterpiece. Delaney chose to do an original laney ray. ;)

franks chose starry night. all but Charlie, rosie, and Curtis chose starry night (they chose to paint in the style of Jackson Pollock). I was so impressed! they turned out really nicely.

we dressed them all in their grubby clothes, so they were looking pretty rough. :)

while they watched their movie I had set up our art studio. I pinned all their work up and it looked really cool.

I didn't think to take a picture till we'd already taken several down, but here are half of them.

things got crazy at the end. we didn't have that much time, and I had a group working outside and inside. lexi stayed with the outside group, while I was with the insiders. I had to leave as close to 4 as possible to get to our t. swift concert, so I was trying to hurry and get ready in between helping kids paint their masterpiece's and take pics with them.

it was a crazy day! I planned to do a ton, and we got it all done by the skin of our teeth. the kids were great, if a little crazy during playtime. I wish we had a longer summer because there are so many more artists i'd love to show them! it was a fabulous day at kid camp!