Camp Ideas

Camp starts in just a week and a half and I have to be prepared to hit the ground running with activities for the kids to do in Arts and Crafts. Last year I kept a written log of things I did which will help me out as a reference for this year. I don't want to do exactly the same things as last year, because lots of campers come back. There are certain activities that they expect and would be disappointed to miss: Tie-dye, gimp, friendship bracelets, craft stix, wooden race cars and rockets for the older kids. But I do need to come up with new stuff. There are lots and lots of web sites out there with craft ideas. I've already gotten some great ideas. A lot of the sites are repetitious - you can find the same crafts on each site. But some have come up with some good ideas. For "Special Days" I have to come up with ideas that go along with that theme. The three special days I have in the first two-week session are: All Star Sports Day, Red White and Blue Day and Pirate Day. Each of those days I might not have kids of every age group...just whoever is scheduled for that day. For All Star Sports Day I have the 6-7 year olds, who will make Pennants out of foam paper and pre-cut foam letters. I'm HOPING I can get those at the craft store. I also have lots of foam paper scraps they'll be able to cut up and glue to their pennants. If I can steal....uhmmmm...borrow enough paint stirrers from the Home Depot I will use them to hold the pennants. I also have the 11-12 year olds, who will make football, baseball or soccer players from Pony Beads. http://www.makingfriends.com/ponybead/ponybaseball_player.htm I still have to come up with something for the 4-5 year olds. For Pirate Day I'im going to have the 6-7 year old boys make Pirate hats with construction paper. The only other group I have is 8-9 year olds and I'm looking to perhaps order kits for them to make pirate treasure chests. Finally there's Red, White and Blue Day. For the 4-5 year olds I can have them make flags from construction paper using either real white star stickers (if I can find them) or make stars from scrunched up squares of tissue paper. Pretty much stickers and glueing is all they can handle! the 6-7 year olds can make "fireworks" by dropping watered-down tempera paint onto construction paper and then blowing through a straw to make the paint "spider" out. We could also use watered down white glue to do the same thing and add glitter to it. And the 11-12 year olds can make an "Acrostic Poem" using the words "America" or "Freedom" and decorate it accordingly. Of course, those are only the Special Days. There are all the regular days in between! Any and all ideas are appreciated!