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active challenge:

group doodler

Suggested Ages: K – 5th Grades

Can you make a simple drawing without touching the marker or paper? You can if you COLLABORATE! Team up, communicate, and coordinate your actions to draw silly sketches.

Active Challenge: Fun, movement-oriented games and activities to spark innovation and creativity

This is no ordinary DIY activity for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Active Challenge gets kids moving and teaches the same mindsets that professional designers, engineers, artists and athletes use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • A felt-tipped marker
  • String (or yarn, dental floss, etc.)
  • Tape
  • Paper
  • A flat surface to anchor the paper and protect your table from the marker (flattened box, grocery bag, cookie sheet, etc. )

 

Activity Steps:

Use these to keep your innovator on track as they play 

 

    1. Find at least one other person to join you in this active challenge.
    2. Prep the drawing device with one string for each team member (minimum of 3 strings). See video for details.
    3. Tape a piece of paper to the protective flat surface.
    4. Get ready to draw. One team member holds each string. (For teams of two, at least one person should hold two strings.)
    5. Collaborate with your team to draw a smiley face. Listen to each other’s ideas and work together to control the marker.
    6. Keep going! Try drawing the smiley face again or try more challenging things (a word, a house, a masterpiece!)

 

Guiding Questions:

If your child is stuck, try asking these questions to help them keep on innovating: 

 

  • What job can each person do to make the drawing process go smoother?
  • How might you make a plan with your team before starting to draw?
  • What might your team draw next?

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started: 

 

  • Try adding more detail to your drawings, such as giving your smiley face some ears, a nose, hair, and a hat.
  • Come up with your own drawing challenges. Try drawing an animal, or a portrait of someone in your family.
  • Not satisfied with how a doodle turned out? Try it again! You’ll be surprised how the same doodle idea will improve with each attempt.

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking your child these questions about the activity and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • What was difficult at first, and how did your team collaborate to solve that challenge?
  • Which was your team’s best drawing? Explain some tricks you learned to be successful with the group doodler?

SHARE!

The last step in the Gallieo Innovator’s Process is SHARE. Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

Share with Galileo

 

Take a picture of your favorite collaborative doodle and share it with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

SHARE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your active challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your experience will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!