Minion Madness

It was difficult to locate unique, easy Minion crafts for older kids.  So, we started the program by showing some short videos from this DVD.  Luckily we have public performance rights for it, so we could show it.

Next the kids got to make a variety of crafts and play a few games.

Game: Tic Tac Toe
I took small white paper plates and made five yellow and five purple Minions using construction paper and large wiggle eyes.

Game: Minion Toss
Using yellow and purple cups from Dollar Tree, I added a large wiggle eye and permanent marker goggle lines.  Kids used rolled up socks to knock them down.

Craft: Minion Slime
Slime recipe:
Container 1: 1/2 cup white glue, 1/2 cup water (mix together)
Container 2: 1/2 cup liquid starch, yellow food coloring (mix together)
Add container 1 to container 2 and mix well.
Divide into baby food jars (which the kids then decorated to look like Minions.  Blue painters tape around the bottom for pants, black sharpies around top for goggles, large wiggle eye).

Craft: Finger Puppets
Paper and markers and tape.

Craft: Bookmarks/Puppets
Large popsicle sticks, markers, small wiggle eyes.

Craft: Paper Minions

We pre-cut the Minion body, eyes (black and white circles), goggles strips and grey goggle base.  Kids created the rest out of paper scraps.

Evaluation: This was a super hard program to pull together, although it went extremely well barring some major issues with the slime.  For some reason, some of the mixtures didn't jell together at all.  I don't know if it was the liquid starch or the glue that caused the issue.  We had enough liquid starch for the first program.  For the second we waited to see how many kids showed up and then game them a runnier slime and told them to experiment at home to see if they could "fix" it.  They really enjoyed the other crafts and the mini-movies.  This was a great way for us to start the program as it allowed for late comers to arrive before we got down to the activities.

How to Eat Fried Worms

We began this program by reading aloud the first chapter of How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell.

Next we showed the worm montage from the movie version, which can be found in the special feature section.  This is a hilarious montage of scenes of Billy eating worms in different ways.  The kids loved it and is has a wonderful gross-out factor.

Afterwards, the kids could choose from the following stations.

Craft: Beaded Worms

The kids folded their pipe cleaner in half, threaded beads onto the pipe cleaner, and ended with a larger wooden yellow bead.  They left enough of the pipe cleaner to make antennae.  With the sharpies, they added eyes and a mouth.

Science Activity/Craft: Worm Composting Bins

Composting station.  Rocks, sand, food and leaf scraps, soil, and worms

Dropping in her worm.

Adding soil

The kids began by adding a few rocks to the bottom of their prepared water bottle (lid cut off, duct tape around cut area to prevent cuts), a small layer of soil, a tablespoon of sand, some organic matter, a worm, more soil.  After their worm home was completed, they covered it with a piece of card stock, as worms prefer dark environments.  The card stock could be removed periodically to view the worm tunnels and see how the worm was doing.

This was super fun, although time consuming.  Many of them had fun choosing their worm and placing it inside its new home.  A few were a little squeamish, so we added the worm for them.

Craft: Worm Painting

The kids dipped yarn in paint and drizzled it on a piece of paper.  This turned out to be extremely messy, so we only had it available for the first session.

Attendance: 29, 12

Evaluation:  This was a lot of fun and the kids were fascinated by the worm houses.  While messy and time consuming, it was fun teaching them about the worms and how to care for them.  

Realm of the Renaissance

To introduce the subject, we began with a short video depicting the fresco technique used by Michaelangelo.  We had hoped to demonstrate how he made his colors, but didn't have all the necessary resources (pigments, egg yolks) or the time.

Video: Michaelangelo Fresco Technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cej4Ggq5nQI

Craft: Fresco

Before the kids arrived we prepared Plaster of Paris surfaces for them to use.  This was time consuming and used up an entire container of Plaster of Paris.  We poured the plaster into small, square plates that had a defined edge.  We selected two different medallions for them to trace and then they used tempera paint to decorate their fresco.

Tracing the medallion

Defining the lines using pencil

Painting with tempera

Craft: Printing

At this station kids could use letter stamps and create a document similar to that done by a printing press.  They could also use the calligraphy pages to hand letter the same words, thereby comparing the two styles.  Most kids preferred the stamping!

Craft: Weapons of the Renaissance: Make Your Own Cannon

This craft came from: http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2014/10/weapons-of-renaissance-make-your-own.html.  It is an easy craft, requiring water bottles, corks, paper towels, baking soda and vinegar.

First the kids taped small dowel rods to their bottles and added cardboard wheels.  Then, they inserted their gunpowder (a tablespoon of baking powder wrapped up in a small piece of paper towel) followed by 1/2 cup of vinegar.  The cannon ball (cork) was inserted into the bottle.  The kids gently swirled the vinegar in the bottle, placed the cannon on the floor pointing away from all kids and waited.

Unfortunately this AWESOME craft, was an epic fail!  It sounded so simple and when we tested one out worked so well.  However, it needs corks that did not have the corkscrew go all the way through.  If there were any corkscrew holes, the pressure couldn't build up enough to pop the cork out.  Also, many of the corks didn't fit snuggly into the bottles (they were way too loose), even though it did in our sample.  If you can find enough working parts, this would be an awesome and super fun addition to any STEAM program.  

Taping on the wheels

Testing the cannons

Patiently awaiting the cannons to fire.

Craft: Sistene Chapel Art

This was a huge hit with many of the kids.  We had a few boxes placed on their sides.  The kids could tape a piece of paper to the top, lay down on the floor and draw just like Michaelangelo did when he painted the Sistene Chapel.

Attendance: 29, 11

Evaluation: Overall this was a super fun program.  The frescos all turned out well and was something many of the kids had never done before, so it had a wow factor.  The cannons, although a failure, were still fun and when they worked, thrilled the kids.  They all went home and kept trying to make them work.  I definitely want to make them again, but will test every cork beforehand to make sure they will fit in the bottles and don't have holes in the ends that release the gas prematurely.

Takeoffs and Landings

For this program the kids made all sorts of fun stuff: paper airplanes, parachutes, roto-copters and hot air balloons.

Paper Airplanes:

Using books to make paper airplanes

Testing planes

Skill Testing

 Roto-Copters:
These were cut out using an Accu-cut die onto card stock, construction paper and printer paper.  We didn't have time to test which weight of paper worked the best.

Hot Air Balloons:

We found the idea on this website and modified it for older kids and time.

http://www.sewhomegrown.com/2011/03/kids-craft-mommy-craft-hot-air-balloon.html

We cut card stock into 1x6 inch strips.  The kids used tempera paint dabbers to decorate their strips.  Once done and dry, we punched holes on one end and connected the strips together using metal brads.  We also punched a hole on the other end and curved the ends up  into a balloon shape, adding an additional brad.  The kids cut yarn strings to attach a 1 1/2 x 4 inch basket to their balloon.

For some reason I don't have a picture of a finished balloon.  This is from the Sew Home Grown blog.  We did not make ours into mobiles.

Parachutes:

We cut 8 x 8 squares out of black plastic garbage bags, tissue paper, and regular grocery sacks.  We punched holes in the four corners.  (To make it easier for the hole punch to work on the plastic, we taped the corners on some and added round stickers to others).  We also cut four equidistant holes on coffee filters. The kids picked one from the four options and cut lengths of yarn to tie on each corner.  We tied the ends together and let the kids test them using clothespins as weight.

Testing from the landing.

Black plastic bag parachute

It's hard to see, but these are roto-copters falling down.

Due to the large number of kids at our first session, we only did the testing from the landing during our smaller evening session.  The kids were well behaved and the patrons didn't seem to mind the items falling onto them.

Attendance: 30, 5

Evaluation: This program didn't go as planned in that I had hoped to do a lot of testing of the different materials to see if material weight made a difference in performance.  I think the program needs to be restructured in order for that to happen.  Each child would have to do the same project at the same time with testing following after creation.  That being said, the kids had a blast.  The hot air balloons required a lot of staff involvement when it came to assembling the balloons.  The younger kids also had a hard time tying the yarn to the parachutes and many didn't cut long enough strings.  With tweaking, a program to run again.

Science Camp: Science of Bubbles

For this program we started with a Steve Spangler video on the Science of Bubbles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAzPfm-0onI&safe=active

Then we created three different bubble wands and tested four different homemade bubble solutions, which I made up ahead of time.  In addition the kids could make Popped Bubble Art.

We added food coloring to a bubble solution.

Here are the solutions we tested.

Solution #1

6 cups water 

½ cup Dawn dish detergent 

½ cup cornstarch

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 Tbsp glycerine

Dissolve the cornstarch in the water, stirring really well.  Then gently stir in the remaining ingredients.  Avoid creating a lot of froth.  Allow your mixture to sit for at least an hour, stirring occasionally if you see the cornstarch settling to the bottom. 

Solution #2

4 cups warm water

½ cup sugar

½ cup dishwashing liquid

Combine the sugar and warm water.  Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved.  Add the dishwashing liquid and stir again.

Solution #3

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp liquid dish soap or laundry detergent

1 Tbsp glycerine

1 tsp sugar

Gently stir all ingredients together.

Solution #4

1 cup dishwashing liquid

15 cups water

This program was MESSY and the floor got very slippery!  Definitely a program that is better suited for outdoors. 

Making bead bubble wands.

More bead bubble wands.

Straw and yarn wands.

This was by far the funnest wand, straws inside the top of a water bottle.  Lots and lots of bubbles!

  

Some even got creative and tried to make 3D wands.

The straw and yarn wands allowed for HUGE bubbles!

Getting creative and using other things for wands.  We also got out clean socks to see if they could hold the bubbles.

 Solution 1 was by far the favorite of both sessions.  I had put together a testing sheet so they could record results (which solution made largest bubbles, most bubbles, longest lasting bubbles, etc.), but the kids never got around to using them.  They were having too much fun playing!

Ideas came a variety of blogs and websites, including:
Bead Bubble Wands: http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2012/03/mirror-mirror-puppy-love-bubble-potion.html#.VEKB3iLF_To
Bubble Blower: http://bhoomplay.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/bubbles_blower/
Straw and Yarn Wand: http://myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-30-diy-bubbles-wands-and-blowers.html
Popped Bubble Art: http://www.broogly.com/project/popped-bubble-art