Art Around the World Camp: June Edition

My campers were wonderfully enthusiastic and adventurous as we "traveled" around the world, learning about 5 countries, listening to the music of each culture, making a piece of art inspired by the country, and trying foreign foods.  I loved every minute!  

Day 1:  Argentina

When campers arrived, they painted and beaded wooden name tags that my husband made on our Glowforge, then they colored in a giant welcome banner.  We learned information about Argentina, made clay llama sculptures, and wove tiny blankets for them with a straw loom and yarn.  Later in the week we painted the llamas.  For food, we made homemade alfajores cookies by rolling out the dough and filling them with dulce la leche.  Yum!  
Recipe:  https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/alfajores-28373

Day 2: Russia

We talked about the vast country of Russia and then read a story called Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polocco.  The campers painted wooden matryoshka nesting dolls and then we made blini, a thin pancake, which we filled with strawberries and whip cream!  
Recipe:  https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215962/blini-russian-pancakes/

Day 3:  Italy

After watching a video about Italy, one of the students dressed up like Leonardo da Vinci and "painted" the Mona Lisa.  We read the story Strega Nona by Tommie de Paola.  We spread wet plaster on burlap to make our own frescoes.  When they dried, we drew fruit still lifes with chalk pastels.  We also made margherita pizza with sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil.  Yummy!  
Recipe:  https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103  (we used refrigerator bistro pizza dough and jarred pizza sauce instead of homemade)

Day 4:  Egypt

After watching a video about a tourist in Egypt, we made funny Pharaoh selfies with our names written in hieroglyphs.  We cooked up some Egyptian Basbousa Semolina cake that was very interesting, like sweet, dense cornbread with syrup on top.  
Recipe: 
​https:/cleobuttera.com/middle-eastern/best-ever-pastry-shop-style-basbousa/

Day 5:  Thailand

We enjoyed a video about a family who traveled to Thailand, and got some special information from MaiLa, one of the campers whose grandparents are from Thailand.  We read a book called The Umbrella Queen and painted with liquid watercolors on paper lanterns.  We cooked up some veggie stir fry and rice noodles with the option of sweet/sour sauce or Thai peanut sauce.  We topped it off with Pocky candy sticks and watermelon slushies.  The kids enjoyed shopping at the studio store, too!  
Recipe: https://damndelicious.net/2014/05/24/watermelon-slush/  (I skipped the sugar)