Outside the box!
Make an abstract art box with Caitlin Luttjohann, Director of STEAM Education at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. We love boxes around here! They make great tools for art and engineering projects, so dig into the recycle bin for some supplies and start creating. This activity is powered by our friends at Evergy.
What you need:
- Cardboard box
- Tape
- Paper, tissue paper, recycled items
Directions:
- Wrap the tape around the box with the sticky side facing outward.
- Use the recycled materials to decorate the box by sticking them onto the tape.
- Display your masterpiece!
Ways to Expand the Activity:
- Create a character! Add eyes, arms, tails, wings, etc to create a new friend.
- Use different sized boxes to make a unique shaped display! Wrap the boxes individually or together and decorate in a whole new way!
What Kids Learn:
- Basic engineering skills. Engineers solve problems with constraints. They learn to solve problems by using the engineering design process: asking questions, coming up with solutions, building, testing and improving.
- Spatial or visual thinking. Being able to imagine the positions of objects and how they interact is an important skill for learning math.
- Fine motor skills. Kids practice using the small muscles in their hands later used for writing.
- Symbolic thinking, or the ability to think about one thing representing something else. When small children begin to connect a house on paper to the house they live in, they start building the connections in the brain that allow for reading and learning later.