Summer Camp 'Friendship Rocks': Ice Painting

ICE PAINTING

Our collaborative art project was a big hit today. Everyone LOVED it. We used frozen paint on Popsicle sticks to create beautiful paintings. While experimenting, we also worked on sharing a space and materials with our friends. The project is also a great conversation starter. We heard lots of comments such  as: "Wow look at this." "I'm mixing the colors." "This looks beautiful." "It is fun."



Yoga With Michelle

Every day after lunch we are doing 'Quiet Time' to relax and calm our bodies down after an exciting, fun-filled day. Some days, we are painting to classical music. Other days, we are creating a collage together. Today, Michelle taught us some Yoga animal poses (e.g., turtle, flamingo). We had a lot fun with the downward dog pose.

"Friendship Rocks": Last Day of BIA's Summer Camp!

Today was bitter-sweet since it was our last day of summer camp. We all had such a great time at camp. We learned many new games but most importantly made lots of new friends. A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our wonderful friends at Kaiser Elementary School in Oakland, especially Mr. Guikema, who let us use his beautiful school to run our camp and Mr. Hardin, who opened the school doors for us every day and was always there for us when we needed him.

Summer Camp "Friendship Rocks": Down the Line

Waiting for the game to start!

This game looks easy at first glance but it requires lots of checking in and good impulse control. 

Kids stand or sit shoulder to shoulder. Each player holds a yogurt cup in his or her hand. The first player fills his or her yogurt cup with dyed water and then pours the water into the next player’s cup. The water is passed down the line until it reaches the last player and that player pours the water into a bottle with fake bugs in capsules that will grow when soaked in water. The player then moves to the front and the game will continue until the bottle is filled.

Materials:

·        bin with dyed water

·        Yogurt cups (1 per player)

·        Bottle on tray or in bin

·        Funnel 

·        Chalk to mark where to sit/stand

·        Bug capsules

Summer Camp "Friendship Rocks": Milk Painting

Milk Painting is another activity that will produce lots of 'ahhs, oohs and wows.' The basic concept of this project is that when you add a little bit of dish soap to milk and some food coloring, the colors burst and swirl around to form an abstract painting.

MILK PAINTING INSTRUCTIONS

 Materials

• Milk
• Dish soap
• Q-tips
• Food coloring
• Shallow bowl or deeper tray
• water color paper

Instructions

• Fill a tray or bowl with milk so the bottom of the bowl/tray is fully covered with milk.
• Add drops of different colors of food coloring. 
• Dip the end of a Q-tip in dish soap.
• Dip the Q-tip into the milk touching a drop of food coloring.
• Watch the colors burst. It will only work for a little while since the more dish soap is in the milk the less the colors will burst.
• Gently swirl the Q-tip through the different colors.
• Before the colors begin to mix too much and become brown place a piece of watercolor paper onto the colors, gently press it down and lift it up again.

The Beautiful Results

Summer Camp "Friendship Rocks": Volunteer Marley

Featured Blogger MARLEY. Marley, 11 years old, volunteered for 1 week at our summer camp. THANK YOU, Marley.

Here is her entry describing her experience:

Clubhouse is a great experience for many children. I really enjoyed volunteering. There were quite a few responsibilities. For example, I took pictures and set up games. I also had to interact, and play with the children, while they were playing. 

There were many fun and exciting activities. Some were art projects, and some were games.The children had lots of fun participating in the games. This one boy, laughed more than anyone else in the camp.

One of the most loved activities, were the stations. The first station was water beads. The other ones were magnets and sand, ice and water, and  water and funnels. In the ice station, there were colored ice cubes, water, and toys and nets. The colored ice cubes colored the water when they melted. It was fun watching the children play all of the games.

Volunteering was fun because I had a chance to help children and have an awesome summer! I had a great time volunteering!

THANK YOU CAMP VOLUNTEERS!

A big shout out goes to our wonderful camp volunteers. THANK YOU for your enthusiasm, dedication, commitment and tireless support. YOU ROCK!!!