Tag: camp

In Summer 2021, I got to work with some creative minds at The Arts Center in Corvallis, OR, in a Monsters Maker 4-day camp for kids.

In this camp, students created their own creatures using illustration, image references, sculpting and making considerations for where and how the creatures might live and what physical adaptations the creatures would need to survive. This camp ignited so much creativity and inventiveness among the students and encouraged sharing ideas, inspiring each other and joining their imaginations. While our focus was mainly on using the sculpting tools and being creative with our stories about our creatures, this camp can be adapted to meet more rigorous science and biology standards for early education.

In this post, I’ll share my camp outline and some of the resources and discussion we used in this camp. This outline can be adapted to different ages, contexts and physical abilities.

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Set up & Goals

Schedule: 4 days, 1.5 hours per day (6 hours total)
In-person

Ages: 6 – 13 years old (1st – 6th grade)
Note: since this was designed as a summer camp, I kept the ages pretty broad to accomodate families. As a school program, I would offer this for narrower age ranges (1st & 2nd grade, 3rd & 4th, etc.) and make changes to my discussion points and objectives for different age groups. Keeping the ages broad meant that my focus was more on the skills of art-making rather than being specific to science learning, although there’s lots of room for adaptation and change with this outline!

Camp overview/ learning objectives:
Students will:

• Discuss habitats and physical adaptations of animals to exist in those habitats
• Share their ideas with and respond to the ideas of their peers
• Practice drawing skills with shapes and details
• Work with polymer clay and special tools to create unique objects
• Write about their creations as characters, developing a world for their character to occupy
• Share their work and respond to the work of others

Materials & Equipment:

• Sketchbook
• Cardstock
• Drawing and coloring materials
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
  • Waterproof pens – (Micron 12)
  • Markers
  • Colored pencils
• Polymer clay (oven bake)
• Clay tools
• Polymer clay glaze
• Paintbrush
• Aluminum foil (full roll)
• Adult only use: Toaster oven, safely plugged in and placed in well-ventilated area
• Optional: findings for jewelry, key chains to turn figures into toys
• Adult only use: Epoxy glue for broken pieces

Environmental Set up:

• Tables and chairs for each student to sit or stand comfortably & safely while working and interacting with others
• Access to bathroom/ hand washing stations
• Materials and tools for each student (clay, clay tools, paper, drawing tools)
• Table for educator to demonstrate, visible by all students, or the ability to walk around, if needed
• Extra supplies nearby
• Toaster oven easily monitored by adults, in a well-ventilated area, safely plugged in
• Space for cooling sculptures after they are removed from the oven

Introductions & Agreements

In all of my classes/ residencies/ camps, I’ll start off with student introductions and an overview of the class. For youth classes, I’ll also work on agreements for the class, which I’ll write up and have available to look at and review for each of the class sessions.

• Student Introductions: Say your name, pronouns, and choose one place to live: the boreal forest, the rainforest, the ocean, a city, the desert, the savanna, the tundra, or somewhere else (tell us)
  • Bonus (to engage student experience and ability): What is something you could teach the rest of us?

• Class Agreements:
  (These agreements help set the tone for the class, and are a useful place to return to when things start to feel “off track” in a way that might leave some students behind.)
  • Try – some things we do might be new/uncomfortable/ difficult or even seem boring, and our job is to try our best as much as we can!
  • Non-judgemental language – When we look at each other’s artwork and share our own, let’s avoid words like “Good” “Bad” or “Like” and let’s think about what we can ask the artist about their work, what their work reminds us of, and if it’s our art, what we might want to change or try that’s different.
  • Share – Be willing to share your work so we can learn from each other and get new ideas!
  • Experiment – Try something different when you can, be curious about the materials, tools, and find different ways to use them or create something new!

Observations & Discussion

In this first day of the class, we looked at examples of ecosystems in our opening, starting off the conversation with an idea that we’ll be creating creatures that would exist in an environment they were adapted for (even if the creature and the environment were both imaginary). We look at examples of boreal forest, rainforest, ocean, cities, deserts, savanna and tundras and ask observational questions:

• What do you notice about this environment?
• What do you think a creature would need to live in this environment?
• What else are you curious about this environment?

We also looked at examples of real-life animals and imaginary creatures. I brought a set of reference images for the class to look over and started our discussion again, this time encouraging students to use their sketchbooks to sketch out physical elements (ears, tails, horns, wings, etc.) from the animals that they were interested in or curious to explore more. Students were invited to pick an animal from the pictures on their desks (the students had different collections of images) and talk about their creature:

• What is something you notice about this creature?
• Where do you think this creature could live, and what physical elements do you think help it to be adapted to its environment?
• What else are you curious about this creature?

Click here for Reference Image Set

Art Making Practice

I try to dive in immediately with art-making, since that’s really the hook of the class: students want to MAKE!

Drawing Practice

Next, I’ll start adding details like eyes and noses, and remind students that this is where we can get creative with different features and think about where our bunny-creature might live (add wings for an aerial bunny? a flexible tail for a tree-dwelling bunny? big scooping claws for an underground bunny?). This is a fun moment to invite students up to the demonstration drawing to add their own elements and talk about how this changes where the creature might live or what it might be able to do.

Students use their sketchbooks throughout the camp, referring back to doodles as they create with clay.

Polymer Clay Practice

Recommendations, Tool use

• Use a small amount at a time
• Figures can’t be too big or they won’t bake well – try to keep them to about palm-size
• Don’t see the color you want? Try mixing colors together!
• Like drawing, shape simple forms (balls, pyramids, cubes)
• Use tools to attach with scoring
• Use tools to smooth out finger prints
• If clay feels sticky, allow it to cool on your foil
• Things to consider with polymer clay: too thick, the clay might not cure evenly, too thin, the clay might be brittle and break easily when handling it
• Details can be carved into the clay and then painted after being baked
• Marbling colors is also a cool way to get effects
• Wash hands before and after clay use
• Polymer clay is not appropriate for food use

Demonstrating Techniques

One of the first projects I’ll demonstrate to the students is to make figures using balls and snakes: by creating large or small clay balls and pressing them together (this is a way to make the body shape of some creatures), or creating a long thing clay snake that can be coiled or twisted for cool effects (like making tails or horns).

I also demonstrate tool use to create details and to join pieces of clay together by first scoring the clay in the spots where they will be joined. This will prevent the pieces from falling apart after baking.

Sometimes that falling apart happens, anyway, and so having a small tube of epoxy glue to mend broken pieces was very useful.

For baking times, I follow the directions for the materials I use, making sure to bake in my toaster oven that’s specifically for polymer clay pieces (I got mine cheap off of a community board), and kept in a well-ventilated area. I also make sure to keep the students aware of the bake and cool down times so that they know they can look at their pieces but they won’t be able to touch them until they’re fully cooled.

Some students wanted to make necklaces and keychains with their clay pieces, so I helped them prep their pieces before baking by adding holes for jump rings that we could attach after baking.

World Building

While students create and have their pieces baked, I encourage them to write and draw their creature’s environment:

• Where does it live
• What does it eat
• What does it usually surround itself with (treasure, tools, other creatures…)

Students can illustrate their scenes on cards that we fold to create backdrops for their creatures. I also encourage students to create character cards about their creatures, which includes information about the creature:

• Creature’s name
• Favorite food?
• What’s its special abilities?
• What is it afraid of?
• What makes this creature unique?

As a special element of the class, I also created stickers for the students using their drawings and my die-cut machine at home.

Outcomes, Further Exploration & Adaptations

As the week went on, the students became more familiar with the tools and materials and created some amazing pieces. The depth of detail and imagination that went into their creations was truly impressive. This camp could have been adapted into a deeper exploration into ecosystems in which the students’ creations lived and worked alongside each other.

Accessibility adaptations to consider:

The motor skills of the student: for some students a softer clay like paper clay may be more accessible. Paperclay is definitely different from polymer clay, and it can be wetted with water to make it softer, as well as baked in the oven. The use of cookie cutters or molds to help shape clay is a great way to also increase accessibility, where students can use those to get started and then add details on top.

The smell and tactile feel of the clay should be considered and may be offensive to sensitive students.

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This was such a fun camp in the summer, and it’s an outline I’m continuing to develop for my other residencies and classes for kids. If you’re an educator or artist and plan to use some of these ideas, tell me about it! I’d love to hear about any changes you make or challenges you come up with in your experience!

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