Naturally Crafty Vacation Camp!

Our first Fall 2008 Vacation Camp went beautifully! True to the theme of “Naturally Crafty,” our 30 campers played, hiked, and crafted their hearts out!

The youngest students started the day by hiking our Woodcock Trail to learn about tree identification and leaf decomposition. They also collected leaves on the way back to use in our first craft of the day – stained glass leaf collages! The older kids started their morning with a scavenger-hunt hike and then crafted fabulous nature journals out of recycled and natural materials.

The highlight of the day was when both groups got together and made beads out of recycled magazine clippings. We followed the example of Native Americans and used certain colors to represent things or experiences with special meaning to us– such as yellow for a goldfinch spotted in the field or blue to represent the gorgeous view of the ocean from Hanging Rock.

Even though it began to pour towards the end of the day, our “Naturally Crafty” campers returned home in high spirits with beautiful crafts to show their families!

Here’s how you can make a Stained Glass Leaf Collage at Home!!

Materials:
Iron (and parental supervision!)
2 same-sized sheets of wax paper
Various colored crayons
Crayon sharpener (dull butter knives work well, too)
Beautiful fall leaves collected from the ground (and other flat objects such as pine needles or flower petals)
Old dish towel (it may get melted crayon on it!)

Instructions:

- Arrange leaves on one sheet of wax paper
- Sprinkle crayon shavings over and around leaves, the more the better!
- Place second piece of wax paper over your arrangement
- Place a thin towel on top of your creation and have an adult use an iron on medium heat to melt the crayons and press the two sheets together!
- Let cool for 1 minute
- Voila! You have a beautiful stained glass leaf collage!!

- Caitlin Luderer, Educator