This summer was my third summer as a specialty counselor at a local day camp for kids ages 5-12. My specialty? Arts and Crafts. Are you surprised?

For the past three summers I have had every intention of writing regular blog posts about the projects I do with my campers. So far my total count for camp posts? Zero. We made a bunch of cool things this summer, but I only managed to get photos of a few of our crafts. Here is a quick glimpse of how I spent my days at camp!

We spent a few camp days experimenting with watercolor. One day we used crayon resist to paint colorful leaves, and another day we experimented with black silhouettes on a watercolor background.

Here are some of our leaves:

And here are some of our silhouette paintings:

Another activity that I have done multiple times is making pipe cleaner buddies. We made these on the day before the Fourth of July, so you’ll probably notice a patriotic theme with some:

Even one of our directors got into it and made a buddy:

Because we did this craft on the day before a holiday, only about 70 campers showed up to camp that day. Normally we have closer to 130 kids, so this day felt particularly quiet and slow. I made my buddy to reflect that sentiment:

I wish I had photos of all the other cool stuff we did this summer. We made sun-catchers, paper weavings, collages, paper dragons, zentangle doodles, windsocks, painted rocks, kites, tie dye and more.

My goal for next year? Take more photos!!