Giant Weave

This is a good activity for a camp where it can be built up gradually.

Start by creating the frame, this is done using several large poles or branches. The frame can either be a free standing tee-pee shape or a flat shape which will need to be hung up. Bind the poles tightly together with string.

Wind string or wool across the frame to create a spiders web type structure. Objects like twigs, leaves or pine cones which are collected on walks can the be woven into the string.

T-shirt printing

This is a good activity for small groups of young people. If your group is larger then you can split it into smaller groups. The idea is that each person creates a printing block and these are used to print T shirts for each member of the group, each shirt having had all the designs printed onto it.

Start by creating a design on paper. It should be fairly simple with defined outlines. Then transfer this to a polystyrene tile using a pencil. You can now cut away sections of the design using a craft knife. There are two ways of doing this depending on the thickness of the tile. Either carve away the relevant sections without cutting all the way through the tile or cut all the way through to give a sort of stencil then glue a second tile on the back. If you do this you will need to check that the glue is suitable as some types can melt the polystyrene.

Once all the printing blocks are complete decide how they should be arranged on the T shirt. Using a brush or small roller cover the block in fabric paint. It is best to experiment on some scrap fabric to find out how much paint to use and how hard to press to get the best results. You can then print onto the T shirts. Beware some fabric paints need ironing to fix them before they can be safely washed.

Giant Collage

If you have access to an overhead projector you can use it to enlarge a picture by sticking a large sheet of paper onto the wall and projecting onto it.

Draw an outline on a large piece of card. Divide into groups and cut up scraps of coloured paper and fabric one colour per group. Using PVA glue stick the paper and fabric in the relevant areas.

This works well with things like a folk symbol or rainbow where you have a limited number of colours.

Handprints

The first session will be messy, have a bowl of water ready for washing hands and put down plenty of newspaper.

Each person should make several handprints, either paint the hands using brushes or pur paint into trays. It helps to have a sheet of sponge in the tray so you don't get to much paint on the hand.

One the handprints have dried cut them out and use them to make a collage. They make good tail feathers for a peacock or leaves for a tree

Polluted City

In the first session make buildings from old boxes, cardboard tubes etc. If you stick them together using masking tape they will be easier to paint. As well as buildings make cars, trains, lorries and other things which you would find in a city. Paint the buildings.

The second session in the messy bit. Arrange the buildings on a large plastic sheet to form your city. Get a length of plastic guttering and place down the middle as a river. Mix up a sludge using either flour, water and paint or mud. This is a good use of left over salt dough. Tell a story of a nice city with a clean river, as the story goes on and more factories are build and more cars used the river becomes more polluted. Take it in turns to pour the sludge into the river.

If your group is into model making you may want to allow two sessions for creating the city.