Week 22: Art Camps

This week I taught a couple of art camps at the school where I used to be the art teacher.  It was strange to be back there teaching again, but it ended up being a lot of fun!  The camps were a part of their larger camp offerings, and it just so happened that this week was the Harry Potter themed week - perfect!  (I'm a not-so-closet Harry Potter junky...)

My morning camp was a drawing camp for kids ages 6-9, where I teach them drawing basics.  Along with the regular instruction, we also have fun with some drawing games.  We played a game called "On your mark, get set, draw!" where I tell them something to draw and a time limit.  For example, I'll tell them to draw an owl in a tree in 50 seconds, and they go for it.  Then I'll tell them to draw a pirate ship in 60 seconds, and they have to try to incorporate that somehow with the first thing I told them to draw.  After telling them 7 or 8 things, they have to tell a story about how those things work together.  It's a lot of fun!  

Another drawing game I play with them is a "Parts of a Sentence" game.  I have little slips of paper that are red, orange, yellow, and green.  On the reds are adjectives, the oranges are nouns (animal or person), yellows are verbs, and greens are nouns (place or object).  They pull one of each, put them in rainbow order, and have to draw whatever is on their papers.  For example they might pull, "a sleepy giraffe skateboarding in a pool," or "a grumpy ballerina jumping rope at the mall."  This is a favorite game because of the absurdity of the sentences themselves, and then the fun of drawing them out!

In the afternoon I taught a Comic Book camp for 9-12 year olds.  It was fun to do character development with them, and I learned that I have a skill for it!  I had a list of things for them to consider for their character, and found that I could rattle off stuff off the top of my head and create some really awesome (crazy?) characters.  The kids struggled with it some, and I kept telling them that they were over thinking it.  The quicker we came up with things, the easier it became!  

The kids had a lot of fun coming up with their characters and drawing out their silly story lines.  It was interesting how secretive some of them became about them, though.  I had to insist that I be able to see their work so I could give them feedback! They didn't want anyone to steal their ideas, and I had to assure them that we were working in a safe space and that no one would steal their work!  

Teaching full-time reminded me how exhausting it can be!  I may have taken a nap or two...or three...this week.  But teaching also reminds me that I can learn a lot when I work with kids!