Mar 264 min read

Stem and Art camps at Maker Studio Kidz

Updated: May 9

February has been a rollercoaster of creativity and fun. We've been working hard at Maker Studio Kidz to bring the best camp experience in the bay area!

We kicked the month off with our lunar new year camp, hosted several unique birthday parties, and prepared for our first ever Makertopia camp.

Makertopia

We bring you our biggest camp yet! Makertopia is an exploration of what would happen if you had to rebuild a utopia from scratch. How would you build houses and cars? What new inventions would you create? What skills would you have to develop to return the city to its prior glory? All of this and more are themes discovered in our week-long camp.

We have separated our week into daily guilds, or skills, that they learned:

Grand builders

Cardboard techniques

Learning how to connect cardboard using gussets, L-braces, Flanges, and many other cardboard tricks to make your structure more stable without the need for glue!

Trees and fauna

Using the cardboard techniques we made abstract sculptures of the flora of the city to brighten up the place. No city is complete without trees.

Genius Inventors

Houses

Using all techniques and skills learned, students were given pre cut cardboard to make an original house for our citizens to occupy.

Genius inventors

Furniture

Using wood, cardboard, and found objects, we made chairs, beds, bathtubs, closets, and basically any funky furniture that they could come up with.

Cars

How would you make a car if you had to invent it from scratch? Using recyclable objects we strived to create an environment friendly car of the future!

Master weavers

Collaborative banner
Every Utopia needs a flag, and we’ve made the most colorful flags out there! This communal mural helped form a sense of unity and tying the city we we’re building closer together.

Embroidered badges
It’s important to show that you are a makertopia resident by showing your artsy badges! With a simple embroidery method we were able to make our signature badge.

Pilot commanders

Pilot hat headband:
The best way to fly is to do it in style, so we made our very own pilot hats to make sure we were prepared for take-off!
Rocket ship:
It’s time, rocket ships are ready to be built and innovated! We have to reach new planets and universes by using our top notch technology and creativity. Ready set, launch!
Alien world dioramas:

What happens when our rocket ships land on unknown lands? Maybe even alien inhabited planets? Our favorite clay we recommend using to make your alien creatures is this fluffy clay that kids of all ages can enjoy and easily use. Let’s have fun and imagine new undiscovered worlds!

Maven magicians and amazing alchemist

Wands
Abracadabra! A wand is necessary when delving into matters of magic and wizardry, so let’s make them. We used birchwood sticks that we wrapped in macrame string, we made pom poms from scratch, and decorated our wands to make them extra effective.

Magic potions

With the magic word, our wands, and our powers figured out, we can start making our potions! By using tale of newt, eye of frog, some special star juice (or vinegar), and the special ingredient, unicorn dust (or more accurately, baking soda!) you can make any potion come to life.

Zoetrope

There's magic all around us! The magic of animation is revealed to us through this amazing Zoetrope activity. Just cut out the stencil linked here, follow the instructions using a cd, a dowel rod, and tape, and see the magic when you spin it around super fast! Have your kids see the galloping horse through the cut out slits vs through the top and see how your eyes are made to see the animation come to life!

Our Ski week Makertopia camp was a total success, bringing innovation and art to the next level, we crafted our very own Utopia!

Sound of science camp

Doo do do do!!! A symphony of art and music approaches in our new Sound of Science camp as we learn all about human sound, animal sounds, sound waves, music creation, experiment with our five senses, and more!

What will we make?

Musical instruments

Kazoos, tambourines, drums, and slide whistles, we discover all about percussion, wind instruments, tempo and beats!

Science experiments

Discover the amazing world of sound waves, what are chladni plates? How does sound travel through the air to our ears? All questions we will answer and experiment with.

Animal sculptures