Welcome fellow camp directors (moms, dads, grandparents, guardians…) and campers! Welcome to week two of #CampWarnerBros. I hope that you had a chance to watch last week’s movie, LEGO DC: Shazam! Magic and Monsters and had a chance to create your own superhero costumes. If you didn’t get the chance to watch it yet, I hope you’ve added it to your summer watch list.
This is a new week at #CampWarnerBros, which means I have something fun to share with you, as well as another movie you and your family might want to enjoy together.
This week we’re making crystal gems. Many people (meaning us adults) already know what crystal gems are. We know them as “rock candy.” My husband LOVES rock candy. Every time we visit the local farmer’s market he always wants to pick up a couple to snack on. Being diabetic, it’s not exactly a healthy choice for me (sugar!).
I work in an after school program. I have seen some of the science classes making crystal gems, but I never know how they made them. Now I know, and I am going to share that with you and your campers.
Here is your list of ingredients and how you’ll go about making the crystal gems. The image is not exactly clear enough (I had to resize it to fit on my site), but you can get a larger (clearer) version (one you can save and print out if you’d like) but clicking here – Steven Universe’s Crystal Gem Candy
I had plenty of the ingredients on hand (sugar, tall glasses, paper clips, pencils…). What I didn’t have was food coloring. No big deal, or so I thought. I went to four – yes FOUR – stores and all I could find was gel food coloring. Two stores had nothing at all, and two only had the gel food coloring. I took my change and picked up the gel food coloring. Just to make sure the gel food coloring wouldn’t ruin my crystal gem candy, I made two of them – one with food coloring, one with out.
My next issue was that I couldn’t find cotton string or food twine. I thought that was not a big deal. I thought I could use brand new, thin, shoelaces. I figured they were made of cotton or a similar material.
I followed the directions exactly, making two different glasses – one plain, one with food coloring (I did red and blue because I wanted to make purple crystal gem candy).
Sadly, something happened along the way and it didn’t work out for me. At first I thought it was the gel food coloring, but that wouldn’t explain why the other glass didn’t work. The only thing they had in common that varied from the directions was the string. Lesson learned – DON’T USE SHOELACES.
Oh well…
You can find an image of what it was supposed to look like here at ScienceFun.org. You can also check out the hashtag #CampWarnerBros on social media to see how it worked out for other #CampWarnerBros camp directors and campers.
Here is some additional information to help with enjoy this fun project even more.
The Science Behind The Fun:
As time passes (and the solution cools), the water will slowly evaporate from the solution. As the water evaporates, the solution will become more saturated with sugar. The sugar molecules will collect on the string, and the candy crystals will grow molecule by molecule!
Extra Science Fun:
Try making two jars of candy. In the first jar – seed your “Crystal Gem” Candy by rolling your string in water and sugar. In the second jar do not seed your string with sugar before growing. Determine if using seed sugar crystals changes the growth rate of your “Crystal Gem” Candy!
After you make (and eat!) your crystal gem candy, why not put on a fun, family movie that has to do with colorful gems – Steven Universe: The Movie.
I first learned about Steven Universe last year when I was substituting as a site director at one of our after school program sites. One of the boys in that program LOVED Steven Universe. Since I never heard of the show before, I Googled it.
Steven Universe was on the Cartoon Network. Now you can find the episodes on Hulu and HBO Max, to name a few.
There is a movie based on the characters and show, appropriately entitled, Steven Universe: The Movie. Warner Bros was kind enough to send me a digital code so I could watch the movie with my family.
Steven is older than he is in the series. He’s now 16 years old.
He is given the opportunity to remain on Gem Homeworld, but he’s opted not to. He’s done with everything and just wants to sit back and relax on Earth with his best friends. The Diamonds try to get him to stay there with them and fulfill Pink Diamond’s role as leader, but he refuses.
Back on Earth, Steven and his friends Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst are set to appreciate their new “happily ever after.” Sadly, their joy is short lived with a new threat lands on Earth.
An evil gem named Spinel has landed on Earth and intends on killing Steven and all life on Earth. She manages to zap Pearl, Garnett and Amethyst back into gems. She also sucks a lot of Steven’s gem powers from him before he is able to grab a hold of her weapon and zap her into a gem, just like she did to his friends.
With his dad’s help, Steven is able to regenerate the gems, but they are not the same people they were. It’s as if their memories have been erased. Even Spinel has no clue that she’s really evil and out to destroy Steven and the rest of Earth.
Now it’s up to Steven, his father and his other friends to return the gems back to the people they once were.
Will they succeed? To find out you need to watch Steven Universe: The Movie. Look for it where ever movies are sold/rented.
Since I’ve never watched the show before, I was a bit confused as to the backstory, but I did my best to follow along. After a while I was understanding their backstories.
I should mention that this is a musical. There are plenty of songs (brief) throughout the film. This is also a sing-a-long movie with the words appearing on the bottom of the screen. All you have to do is follow along with the bouncing yellow star and sing along with the rest of the characters on the film.
I enjoyed the film. I’m not sure if my husband would or my kids (since my kinds are 20 and 23 years old). I’m sure younger children will enjoy this because of the colorful collection of characters, action, and sci-fi’ness to it.
Combined with the crystal gem candy project, this would make for a fun “camp day” with you and your family.
I hope that you’ll check out my site next week for week #3 of #CampWarnerBros, where I’ll have more fun ideas you can do with your camper this summer.
You can see what other Camp Warner Bros. Directors are doing by checking out the hashtag #CampWarnerBros on social media.
Below is the film’s trailer for your enjoyment.
Kimberly
*I received a free digital download in order to do this review, as well as free goodies in exchange for my participation. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.