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Project challenge:

Mindful Art

Suggested Ages: K – 2nd Grades

Breathe deeply and focus your mind as you stamp your way to a perfectly balanced masterpiece. In this challenge you’ll need to BE REFLECTIVE and concentrate on what designs you are printing where, to ensure your artwork stays radially symmetrical as you work in the round.

Engaging Design-It-Yourself projects to inspire young innovators

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

 

Every Galileo Design-It-Yourself Challenge teaches the same techniques and mindsets that professional designers an engineers, artists and chefs use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • Paper (1 sheet of white paper, or 4-5 different colored sheets)
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Marker or pen
  • 4-5 different-sized circular objects to trace (plate, can, bowl, etc)
  • Ink pad* and household objects (disposable cutlery, toothpicks, beads, pen caps, etc) for printing
  • Optional: Scissors and glue, for layering different colors of paper

    *Note:     If you don’t have an ink pad, you can just draw with markers instead

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they create:

 

1. Use objects to trace concentric circles.

 

2. Draw a dot in the center.

 

3. Align the ruler with the dot. Mark along the ruler on either side of the dot—Support kids with this as necessary. (2:42)

 

4. Print over both marks with the same object.

  • Support being reflective—If kids are rushing and not noticing if their designs match, remind them that reflecting before each print will ensure their artwork is more balanced and calming at the end.
  • Ask: How can you be sure your artwork is balanced? How might you check?

 

5. Rotate the ruler and repeat until each circle is filled. (3:04)

  • Ask: What objects have you printed with so far? What else could you print with to get a different shape or type of line?

 

More Ideas:

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

 

  • Step It Up! Create your own stamps out of craft foam. Cut out the main shape, then etch details into it with a pen or pencil. Glue it to a cardboard backing.
  • Step It Up! Print with paint instead of ink. Take your time to mix custom paint colors before you start. Use a thin coat of paint to stamp.
  • More people? Make a huge version on poster-size paper and get everyone in your household involved!

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking kids these questions about their project and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • What objects did you use to make these designs? Which one do you like best? Why?
  • How did you make sure your finished artwork was balanced and matched on both sides? How did being reflective help?

Subscribe Now—It’s Free!

 

With so many changes to everyone’s regular routines, we know you’re likely looking for ways to keep your kids learning (and yourself sane) while schools are closed. Subscribe here and Galileo will deliver a week’s work of activities to your inbox every Sunday to add to your routine!

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 photo of your finished artwork 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 project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project 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!