Weekly Overview

Weekly Project Supplies:

Wooden base (gessoed)
Dino plastic figures (gessoed)
Plastic eggs (gessoed)
Canvas panel
Card-stock, tissue paper (fire colors & vegetation colors), moss, tacky glue, model magic, small uncoated paper plates, glitter glue, fossilized photo examples, toilet paper rolls, googly eyes, dinosaur themed coloring sheets

NOTE: Does not include stations supplies – see Friday.

Help campers find a seat.

Show each camper their markers. Provide one coloring page, and one 11 x 17 sheet of blank copy paper so they can get started making artwork. They can choose either paper to start work on.

NOTE: Encourage students to keep working with one page for as long as possible, asking them what they can add to it (otherwise some will go through many pages in a very short time).

Once everyone is settled, and has done at least a couple of minutes of artwork, announce the switch to making name cards and introductions.

“If you’re not finished, you’ll have time later to work more on the coloring page or drawing you started.”

Introduce yourself (teacher and assistant teacher), and then go around the room, using an ice-breaker question to help everyone share something and tell their name.

A good question is to share their favorite 2 colors that go well together, or their favorite kind of dinosaur using these 4 categories:

• Land Meat Eaters
• Land Plant Eaters
• Flying
• Swimming

Explain that rules make everyone happier, because we know what to do, and they keep us safe.

1. Not too many rules!

2. Be nice

• to each other – only speak kind words

• to your supplies

• to the teachers

• to the rooms and the environment (trash cans)

3. Keep your paws to yourself

4. Stay with your teacher when the herd moves

Talk about the supply boxes and how they belong to the school, but “you get to have your own box for the week, and use our things as if they were your own”.

Alternative project: Name your Art Box! You can also have everyone create a face and a tail on paper to tape to the box so it becomes a little boxosaurus.

Explain how some projects will stay in the studio until Friday, and a few things can be taken home every day.

“On Friday, everything you’ve made will go home with you!”

Show everyone where their ART SPOT is going to be for the week. It is very important to keep all artwork and project materials in each student’s Art Spot. The Art Box will always stay in the spot overnight to guard the artwork.

Introduce campers to the main project that they’ll be working on every day this week: the DINOrama!

You can use one of the finished examples of the main project to discuss all the main parts campers need to consider- There’s a painted base that acts as a foreground, a painted dinosaur, and a painted background.

Use the Dinorama example to discuss the three main parts campers need to plan and make – There’s a painted wooden base that acts as a foreground, a painted dinosaur, and a painted background.

Explain that they’ll get to create their very own habitat for their dinosaur to live in this week. Use dino books to get them thinking about what kind of environment they want to create.

“You get to choose where you dinosaur gets to live! We’re going to plan what our habitats will look like. Does your dino live in a jungle? A cave? Maybe even underwater?“

Hand out two sheets of paper.

and explain what needs to be drawn to come up with plans.

“We’re going to make two drawings with your markers. These are two plans for what your dinorama will look like.

On the first one, you’ll make the ground. Draw it like a map, as if you’re looking down at it. Rocks, water feature, plants, etc. – and of course, a dinosaur.

When you’re finished, then on the other one, you’ll draw a scene to paint on the canvas background. It’s just like a picture, with sky, mountains or volcano, trees, ocean or river… whatever you decide you want to do.

Make these kind of simple because it must be painted.”

“Use your markers to draw what your ground looks like on one of the sheets of paper, and when you’re finished you can move on to drawing what your sky and foreground will look like.”

These plans will stay folded in their art boxes for the rest of the week.

Campers line up at the door with their snacks and water bottles before heading outside.

This is a good time to check to see if anyone forgot to bring a snack so that you can provide one from the library. (i.e. goldfish, fruit snacks, granola bar)

Go over a few rules that help set expectations for camper’s behavior. 

“Before you’re allowed to play you must have your snack finished and all trash thrown away. Also, no one is allowed past the orange cone line.”

This is to ensure that no one is in danger of being hit by a car and it also helps keep campers away from the wooded area, where there is poison ivy and lots of bugs.

Campers enjoy a mini play break after finishing their snacks.

After snack kids are allowed to run around, draw with chalk, play card games etc. Be on the lookout for any antagonistic behavior and be ready to remind students of the rules if needed. 

There will be large trash cans with lids by the picnic tables that should be fully covered after use and emptied at least weekly (ideally every Friday). 

Before lining back up to head inside make sure that everyone has taken the time to look around to check to see if any trash was missed. once everyone has all of their things they brought outside with them you can go ahead and lead them back inside to continue onto the remaining projects of the day. 

Campers draw out where they plan to paint each of their colors.

Hand out wooden bases and have kids draw out the different colored sections of their ground in pencil as you and your assistant go around checking each camper’s plan. Work with each student to find out what colors they’ll need in order and write them down so that they can be mixed as promptly as possible. 

It helps to have one person sit and mix colors as the other goes around the room collecting color orders and writing them down on paper plate palettes. These can be passed back to students along with paper towels and water buckets for wipe wash wiping in between using different colors. 

Wipe before Wash

Do your best to keep water buckets clean and plumbing free from excess paint, by encouraging wiping paint off the brushes before dunking into water. However, don’t make the kids feel bad, and don’t expect them to do it much.

Before handing out brushes make sure kids understand how to wipe before wash.

“When you want to change from one color to another make sure you wipe  your brush and then wash it!” 

Hand out brushes to every student that’s done drawing and has their colors. Giving out medium and small sized brushes encourages detailed work, but large brushes can be used if you need to cover a lot of area fast.

Students can spend the rest of the time painting their bases, trying their best to match their plans and follow their pencil guidelines. Lastly, have them paint the base’s edges.

Once everyone wraps up their painted base its time to cleanup:

• brushes in water buckets taken to the sink to be super washed
• plans get stored in art boxes
• paint plates get thrown into the trash can upside down (as well as any significantly dirty paper towels)
• painted wooden bases get stored in the designated art spots

Once campers are all cleaned up you can move into the extra project.

Assistant should super wash all brushes.

Campers get pencils and erasers out while teachers pass out sheets of card stock.

Everyone can get started following along with the teacher as a demo of the big shapes of a simple dinosaur is drawn on a board where the whole class can see. They can make their own type of dinosaur if they want to, but it’s good to have an example for kids who don’t know where to start.

Encourage kids to try and draw as lightly as possible using “tickle lines” so they can easily erase to make adjustments as they need. Most will not be able to do this so don’t make them worry about it.

Once a basic dinosaur body is drawn campers should come up with their own expressions and accessories as well as some background elements. (rocks, bugs, footprints, foliage)

Campers put their pencils and erasers away and get out a set of oil pastels.

Bright oil pastels should be used to give bold outlines to the pencil drawings. It’s also handy to make sure that everyone knows that the oil pastels are just being used to go over all of their pencil lines. This is because most of the coloring will be done in watercolor paint.

“We will be using our oil pastels for going over our pencil lines ONLY. Make sure you don’t fill in any big areas with color until we start using watercolors.” 

However, if you’re running low on time due to the painting bases taking a little extra time its ok to skip the watercolor and fully commit to this being an oil pastel drawing.

Once oil pastels are put away teachers hand out watercolor trays, water buckets, brushes, and paper towels .

For the last stretch of projects for the day campers get to spend some time mixing colors and painting in their colorful outlined dinosaur portraits. 

 “Make sure to mix your very own colors that you may want to use to paint your Dinos! You’ll need to use lots of water in your brushes to wake up the paint. And just like last time we painted, whenever you want to make and use a new color be sure to wipe, wash, and wipe your brush.”

Campers clean up their work areas.

While all the kids take their brushes to the sink to get super washed all of their painted Dinos should carefully be gathered and placed on the drying rack so that they can take them all home the next day.

Once all trash is thrown away and all watercolor trays are given back, campers should line up with their belongings if they’re going home and lunches if they signed up to stay all day for art buffet. 

Assistants stay outside with the kids while teachers head back to make sure all classrooms are ready for the upcoming art buffets.