Screen-free, hands-on building projects for PreK to Grade 8. Every learner builds their own machine and keeps it.
FutureMakers has been a roster artist with Arts for Learning Maryland since 2013, so your school books us the way it books any Arts for Learning program. Every project comes three ways: buy the materials and teach it yourself, have a FutureMakers coach lead the lesson in your classroom or over video, or take a set of packs for families to build at your own family night. Learn more opens the Arts for Learning page for the coached classroom version. For materials only or family packs, you can talk to Arts for Learning first.
PreK to Grade 5, adaptable through Grade 8
Each learner builds a moving cardboard sculpture from pre-cut levers and pivots, then adds a Creature Feature of their own: a snapping mouth, a claw, a flapping wing. They work through the engineering design steps of ask, imagine, plan, create and improve, and take the finished Art Machine home. 45 to 60 minutes, up to 25 learners.
PreK to Grade 3
Each learner builds a spinning top from wooden pieces on a square dowel, then tests a balanced build against an unbalanced one to see which spins longer. They color two of the pieces in different primary colors, spin it, and watch their brain blend red and blue into purple. The Blendie goes home. 45 to 60 minutes, up to 25 learners.
Kindergarten to Grade 8
Each learner builds a folding cardboard box with a paper scroll inside and a crank on the side. They draw a story across the scroll, then turn the crank and watch it play through the window like a tiny movie. They learn engineering and story structure at once, and the Crankie goes home. 45 to 60 minutes, up to 25 learners.
Grade 2 to Grade 8
Each learner builds a small machine from foam parts and markers. A motor spins an off-center weight, the whole machine shakes, and the markers draw looping patterns on the paper underneath. Learners take it apart, change the design, and join it to a friend's machine to see what a bigger one draws.
Arts for Learning does not list Drawbots yet. Learn more goes to our Drawbots page, and you can ask the Arts for Learning team to book it.
Bring us in for a 90-minute session with your educators. They build a Blendie themselves, talk through where learners get stuck and why, and leave with a plan for teaching it in their own classrooms. For professional learning on Art Machines, Crankies or Drawbots, ask the Arts for Learning program team.
If you want to hold the materials before you decide, request free samples. If you want help matching a project to your grade levels and your budget, book a call with Fatima Oladosu, the Arts for Learning program manager. Fall is the time to plan this, because most school budgets lock in by January.
Booking, contracting and invoicing go through the Arts for Learning Maryland program team. Ask them about Access for All and Maryland State Arts Council AiE grant funding, which many schools use to cover these programs.
.png)
