cMoe at Home

Spring Break Camp at cMoe

We had SUCH a busy and fun week at cMoe over Spring Break! We once again took part in "Destination Discovery Camp" - we partner with four other local non-profits (Angel Mounds, Evansville Musuem of Art, History and Science, Mesker Park Zoo, and Wesselman Woods) to offer a camp that takes kids to a different destination every day. On Tuesday and Wednesday, cMoe hosted two different groups of kids. We had a blast with different art and science activities. I took a LOT of pictures, but mostly on Wednesday. So if your kid attended camp but isn't in any of these pictures, it would be a safe bet that he or she was in Tuesday's group. 

Here are some of our activities:

Destruction Art

Step 1: Draw a picture with crayons on heavy card stock.

Step 2: Pretend like you can't stand the sight of it anymore, and crumple it up!

 
 Step 3: Cover the drawing in WASHABLE paint. (The washable part is quite important.)

Those hands are moving fast.

Typically, the darker the paint, the better the results.

 

 Step 3: Dunk the paper in water! Carefully rub the paint away. (You can't be too rough, or the paper will fall apart.)

Step 4: Wait for the papers to dry, and admire the beautiful results. As you can see, the paint seeps into the cracks, but washes away on most of the other parts of the painting.

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Gem Magnets

This was probably my favorite activity. It's super simple and the kids made some amazing magnets. The directions are simple. Find (very) small pictures from magazines. (You could also draw your own pictures.) Lay a clear glass art bead (or what I like to call a"squashed marble") over the top of the picture to make sure it looks okay. Put a dot of glue on the paper and press your art bead onto it, flat-side down. When it dries, trim around it with scissors, and glue a magnet to the back. That's it! You could also turn these into story stones, letter-learning tools, or jewelry. I want to make a thousand of them! 

Ice Tie-Dye

Omigosh; BEST. TIE-DYE. EVER. This is seriously my favorite tie-dye I've done, and I've done a lot of tie-dye in my day. The results of this one were SO colorful - although I did issue a strong warning to parents not to wash the tie-dye with any other garments for at least, oh, a thousand washes. There's not a ton of time to rinse when you're creating 20-30 at once. But look how pretty!

This was a rare Pinterest win - here's what we did. The kids scrunched up the tie-dye like normal. They had done a different kind of tie-dye at Angel Mounds, so they knew some fancy tying methods I wouldn't have been able to teach them. Cool! After that, Ben and I stationed ourselves by some window screens laid on top of baby pools, buckets, etc. We handed kids tiny spoonfuls of powdered fabric dye, and they sprinkled it over their bandanas. When everyone was done sprinkling, we dumped ice on top of them all. 

As the ice melts, it mixes with the dye and seeps into the fabric. It's much more potent than when you dissolve it in water. (Hence, the warnings about not machine-washing.) 

Oil & Water

It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Like, how could this really keep kids entertained. But oh, it does. And I would HIGHLY recommend doing this outside if you're able. Sadly, we weren't, and my jeans will never be the same. Oh well, just a minor causality of working at cMoe. 

Step 1, give kids some colored water, wax paper, and droppers (or straws) and let them explore water cohesion and tension. They did this for probably a half hour, and only stopped because we ran out of room on the wax paper. 

Step 2, give them pans of vegetable oil and colored vinegar, and let them go to town. (By the time I shot these, they had progressed from dripping in water and vinegar to ... dumping it in. But it's okay - all in the name of experimentation!) 

Step 3, which was way to frenetic for me to take pictures of - after they have added vinegar to their oil, go around the room with "Magic" Powder - (psst: it's baking soda.) Sprinkle some in their oil pans and watch as it reacts. The kids FLIPPED OUT. They loved it so much. They guessed right away that the "magic" substance was baking powder, but it didn't stop them from pretending that the creations were potions and that they were witches, or from screaming, "It's going to explode!" every time I added more. 

Museum Time

One of the best things about camp is getting to play in the museum. 

Coordinator Ben painting Abby's face like "Hello Kitty."

There was a lot of action in this play. Flash photography was graciously permitted.

Giant Bubbles

It's pretty safe to say that Giant Bubbles was the favorite activity of many campers. The recipe is incredible simple: 2 cups liquid dish soap, 1 cup corn syrup, and 6 cups water. That's it. Then, we cut the bottom of off water bottles and used them as bubble blowers. 

The kids got the hang of it pretty quickly.

It was only Play Guide Becky's second day on the job! She just HAD to come outside and have the campers teach her about bubbles!

Do you know how difficult it is to properly photograph a bubble? But I did it, and captured its elusive shadow!

That's it! Looking at all these pics again makes me exhausted, but happy! We had an awesome two days with these guys, and hope they had half as much fun as we did!