Dollar Store Day Camp Week 2 - Arts and Crafts

We are having too much fun with Dollar Store Day Camp this year. So much fun that they kids are becoming obsessed with doing certain activities more than once. This week, we had an arts and crafts theme, and there was one particular craft that the kids decided to do 3 days in a row. 3 days! I call that a win for summer. Here’s what I had planned for the week, and what the kids actually got to do:

Day 1 – Airplane Creation and Decoration

We found these really cool airplane kits at the dollar store. They even had directions in the bag to show the kids how to get their planes to fly straight and loop-de-loops. The kids grabbed their markers to decorate and customize their planes.

Once Dad came home, he talked to them about how planes work, and even shared how to position the tail so the planes would fly better. So, we got a homeschool lesson mixed in with our fun!

Day 2 – Sun Catcher Painting

This was another craft that was already put together, thanks to the dollar store! The kit included the sun catcher (we grabbed a rocket ship and a castle), and the paints needed to color them. The kids spent almost an hour thinking about how they wanted to paint their sun catchers, and also painting them very carefully. Mom spent the hour catching up on work. Totally worth the 2 dollars.

Day 3 (and 4) – Bead Bracelets

For some strange, odd reason, this activity was a hit with my kids. It’s pretty simple — thread beads onto pipe cleaners, twist together, and make into a bracelet. I told the kids that they could create them into any color bracelet, and they could make them for friends and family members.

This craft lasted 2 whole days. They started to make bracelets that represented their favorite movie, TV show and video game characters. It was very cute to watch, even though I knew we wouldn’t be able to do one of the other activities.

Day 5 – Model Clay Sculptures

We found model clay at the dollar store, and I had an awesome idea of how the kids could use it for an activity once I saw there was brown clay included. I told the kids to make clay sculptures of themselves, like a clay “selfie.” My son pretended to not be into it at first, but created the coolest self-sculpture ever! It was great to see my kids sit and think for a minute before creating their art pieces.

Bonus Day – Cake Art and Decorating

We didn’t get to this part of the week (they wanted to make those dang bracelets), but my idea was to have the kids bake the cake on their own, let them go through the agony of letting it cool *snort*, and then decorating it with skittles, pop rocks and frosting. It would have been their last art project of the week, and they could eat it for their Friday dessert. We still have all the items, so this may be an activity that they will do on the weekend or during another Dollar Store Day Camp week.