Summer camp not an option this year?

Forget budget cuts, bad weather or that hockey-masked guy with the machete. The coronavirus may be the first real baddie to knock summer camp off the calendar.

While Gov. Greg Abbott is allowing day and overnight summer camps to open May 31, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has many of them canceling or delaying their summer fun under the sun. You can almost hear the screams of all those camp-bound kids, and their parents, who hoped to escape weeks of social isolation in the great outdoors.

If your kids’ favorite camp is closed or delayed, or if you’re not comfortable sending your children away quite yet, you can bring a little summer camp home for the whole family.

Here are three experiences to make your own at-home adventures. trail of your choice, pick up textured items from nature, such as feathers, leaves and pine cones. Then string them together to make a wind chime or dream catcher. Or stick them into clay for an abstract shape that reminds you of wind or rain.

You also can make a pendant. Shape your clay to the desired shape, then add a small hole at the top for a cord or string. Let your clay creation air dry completely, or bake it for one hour at 350 degrees.

Rather make art with sound? Salas recommended simply listening to the sounds of nature while outdoors. Think about how the sounds make you feel, she said. Then try to replicate them when you get home or go inside.

For example, you could mimic rain by placing beans in a cardboard tube taped at both ends, or copy croaking frogs by clicking two rocks together.

And, of course, bird calls are as easy as a whistle.

Activity: Paper projects that pop

What you need: Construction paper, crayons and markers, cardboard, scissors, ruler, glue sticks

For more traditional summer camp arts and crafts activities, get creative with paper. Patricia Morales, director of young artist programs at Southwest School of Art, suggested a collage or a pop-up book.

For a collage, Morales said kids can simply cut out drawings, magazine images, fabrics, etc. Then have them color their collage’s cardboard background and fill it with the images they find interesting.

Making a pop-up book is a bit more involved, though Morales said these can be as simple or as complex as your kids can manage. Here are Morales’ steps:

First, have your child plot out their tale with a storyboard in a notebook or on a sheet of paper. This way they’ll know how many pages they need.

To make a pop-up page, fold a piece of construction paper in half so it opens like a clam shell. In the center of the folded edge, cut two parallel slits about 2 inches long to make a pop-up tab.

Next, open the paper and gently pull the tab forward. Use a ruler and pencil to draw lines in front of the tab where it will have its text.

Have your child write the text for his story on the lines, then decorate the background of the page behind the tab.

On a separate piece of paper, have your child draw a picture. Cut out the picture and glue it onto the bottom half of the tab. To add more pages, glue the bottom of one page to the top of another. Just make sure you don’t put glue on the pop-up tabs.

For the book cover, fold a larger piece of construction paper over the pop-up pages and glue it to the end pages. Decorate the cover and write the title. Be sure to include the author and illustrator of this page-turner.