Craftgrrl

humpfh.
you have your pony beads. you could have them do safety pin bracelets.
how about hemp jewelry or that plastic lace...the boondoggle? It is fairly cheap to buy...around .04 cents a yard or 2.99 for 100 yards. It takes only 4 yards to make a bracelet and there are tons of online directions.
Friendship bracelets?
You could make memory wire bracelets....

Umm I think that is all I have for now...I hope you figure something out.

Paper beads? Cut triangles (doesn't matter what kind of triangle, but I prefer longer ones) and take sticks, like skewers, and roll the paper, starting with a wide end with a point coming out, then glue the tip down. You can string them up with all sorts of stuff (pasta, real beads, etc) and make necklaces or what not.

Cheap and easy...

I found these instructions for paper beads two days ago:
http://members.tripod.com/tagartcreations/paper_beads.htm

It has little drawings and might make it easier to explain. Plus you can print it out for students.

leather is fun to work with. i know there are kits out there where you get the leather wet and then stamp the leather with metal stamps and a hammer which will leave a pattern in them. or you can use a wood burner on leather.

I think the thing I might recommend would be working with wire. I'm trying to think of the stuff my friend's high school class did as well that might be simple enough...I did a design in metal which was very interesting, but since your kids are going to be that young, that is totally out of the question *blow torches and saudering isn't kid friendly* but I think the use of wire might be cool. I know someone in here made a wire tree that had leaves made out of small pebble type things with holes in them, those might be useful as well. the cool thing about the wire is the girls can twirl it into complex spirals, while the two guys can still find something to do with it that is guyish *certain metals are very pliable and can go into harsh angles*

I'm sure you could find some sort of plastic stuff as well...there used to be this stuff called friendly plastic, but I've heard it's not so friendly...lol

that's a small start at least

Friendship bracelets.
need a pack of assorted embroidery floss and perhaps a website where you can get directions for certain patterns.
Very fun, I always did them at camp, and the best part is if you arent finished with them by the end of class you can take it with you and finish it anywhere.

try millefiori sculpey/fimo beads. make up a bunch of canes ahead of time and pass them out. if it's a short class (1 hour), it should work fine. you can demo and have them give them to you to either take them and bake them at home and return them to the students at another time or take a small toaster oven with you to the classroom to bake them. if the class is two hours you can even go into basic cane making, like the bullseye or lace cane. i've done it many a time!

I'd TOTALLY reccomend hemp. That way the guys can make something they'd actually wear. Besides, the basic knot used on most hemp bracelets/necklaces is SO versatile. And hemp is cheap. I'd say just buy a thing or two of hemp, and some cheap wooden beads (yesterday I bought a package of about 16 wooden beads, for $.50). Good luck- you'll have to tell us how it goes!

you know those daisy things that you make with seed beads? I think I remember making them in summer camp when I was like, 9.

Fimo/Sculpey anything!!! Milleflori beads are not too hard, but you can do almost anything with it -- they can make pendants, decorate anything metal (bangles, rings, earrings, sunglasses (take off any plastic parts first, including lenses,) etc...

Really, you can teach them to make necklaces using jump rings and wire, too... not just stringing them on wire...

Bead Weaving? Use a small loom and when you string the weft over or under each string, add a bead... (or you can learn the peyote stitch, but that's tricky, more than a mini class, probably...) Check out Beadbox for neat jewelery-making books, etc...

And of course (please don't anyone throw anything at me) you can make pins out of the flat marbles and pictures like for the marble magnets. I just did this with my 6th graders and they went crazy over them!

you can teach them all the different beading styles like making loops, adding more loops to make a "lace" type of necklace. you can also show them how to make the 5-bead flowers, or the 6-bead flowers with centers.

someone posted a picture of a beaded dragon fly they made with thin wire and put on a bobby pin.

you can also do interesting stuff with those long straight beads like necklaces with two rows, and long beads in between them.

you can make ribbon chokers with flowers sewn onto them.

you can use fimo to make pins or brooches too.

-anklets