This is the third year that I have held a small summer art camp at my home. Many of the lessons that I teach over the summer, I use the next year in the classroom. I love the opportunity to try out lessons for the first time and teach a few things that just aren't practical in a classroom setting.

My art camp runs for just a week with morning sessions from 9:00-12:00. It's amazing how much we can accomplish in that small period of time! When we pack up portfolios at the end of the week, we have nearly a school year worth of artwork! This summer we made: watermelon painting, pattern painting tapestry, cup weaving, modeling clay sculptures, sketchbooks, new crayon shapes, cyanotypes, and 3D letter sculptures.

This is my second year teaching a summer art camp from home.  It's a great opportunity to try out new materials or ideas and to teach lessons that I can't do in my classroom because of budget, time, or class size.

 This year, I had students ranging from entering kindergarten to fourth grade. This is what kept us busy: 
Sketchbooks, bingo dauber painting, washable glue batik, CD printing, sewing, color mixing with frosting, and LEGO printing.

This summer, I taught a week of art classes from home.  A few girls (entering first grade through third grade) from my school attended and we made so much in just four days!  Art camp ran from 9:00-3:00 Monday- Thursday.
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Summer 2017 Lessons:

• Sketchbook
• Glue 'Batik'
• Leaf prints
• Cross stitch 
• Cupcake painting 
• Styrofoam printing 

The most important thing I learned this summer was the routine!  It was nice to get that down and figure out how much we can actually create in a day.

I will definitely continue to host art camps from home in the summers.  It was so much fun to work with a small group and create things that we can't quite do in school because of budget, space, or larger classes.  I also loved testing out a few lessons that I can take back to the classroom.  

A few things that I learned this summer:

• Set up an area to keep all of the art supplies.  I taught my classes predominately in the dining room and living room, so I cleared out some furniture and pushed the coffee table out of the way.  I covered it with a tarp and used it as a counter and a shelf.  Soon, the girls were using it just like they would the space in my classroom.  They would put away and get out supplies as we needed them.
• Start small!  Four days with just a few girls I know well was the perfect way to learn how to teach an art camp.  
• Plan activities that vary in length.  Our batik lesson spanned all four days, but leaf printing took an hour or so one morning.  I think this helps to keep the kids engaged.
• Sketchbooks!  My girls LOVED their sketchbooks.  They were always asking to get them out if they finished a lesson a few minutes early.  I made prompts for their sketchbooks ahead of time, so they always had something to do.  We also used them to plan ideas for the larger projects.  We made our sketchbooks out of file folders and copy paper.  We painted the covers on the first morning of camp and assembled the books later that day.