Sparks @ Home: Art Projects Families Build Together

One bag per child, built with a grown-up.

This Thanksgiving or winter break, Arts for Learning Maryland is offering Sparks: take-home art projects for children 3 and up. Each child gets a bag with everything to build a small moving artwork, plus a family guide in English and Spanish. They build it with a grown-up and keep what they make. There are no screens, and no prep beyond handing out the bags.

A finished Blendies spinning top with the markers that come in the kit

Blendies Take-and-Make Pack

Small Group Pack of 10, PreK to Grade 3

A cardboard spinning top that mixes new colors as it spins. Children color it with the markers in the bag, spin it, and watch new colors appear.

$69.50 per pack of 10

$6.95 per child, plus shipping

Each child's kit is individually packed
Markers are included in every kit

Request Blendies Take-and-Make Pack

A finished Art Machines cardboard creature with colorful fasteners

Art Machines Take-and-Make Pack

Small Group Pack of 10, PreK to Grade 5

Cardboard levers become a creature that snaps, claws or flaps. Children build the mechanism first, then invent the creature around it.

$59.50 per pack of 10

$5.95 per child, plus shipping

Each child's kit is individually packed
Families need scissors and crayons or markers

Request Art Machines Take-and-Make Pack

Prices are plus shipping. Arts for Learning's logo on the bags adds 10%. Sparks have small parts, so they are for children 3 and up.

In-Person Packs for building together

For an in-person program, each pack serves 25 children building together. Use them in libraries, family nights, classrooms, child care centers and Judy Center programs. Want kits to send home instead? See the Take-and-Make Packs above. Planning for several sites? Ask Arts for Learning about larger orders.

Blendies In-Person Pack

Class Pack of 25, PreK to Grade 3

$122 per pack of 25

$4.88 per child, plus shipping

Request Blendies In-Person Pack

Art Machines In-Person Pack

Class Pack of 25, PreK to Grade 5

$105 per pack of 25

$4.20 per child, plus shipping

Request Art Machines In-Person Pack

How ordering works

Ordering runs through Arts for Learning Maryland, so you get one quote and one invoice.

Contact Arts for Learning with how many children you'd like to include and whether you'll pay by purchase order or card.
Arts for Learning sends you a quote and one invoice.
FutureMakers ships to your center.

Order dates. Orders need to reach FutureMakers by November 6 for Thanksgiving (arrives about November 18) or December 4 for winter break (arrives about December 15).

Contact Arts for Learning

Questions? Start with Arts for Learning

Tell Arts for Learning how many children you'd like to include, and they will send you a quote.

Sparks are made by FutureMakers, a Baltimore teaching artist company on the Arts for Learning Maryland roster since 2013. Arts for Learning has sent art projects home before: in 2020, Arts & Learning Snacks sent them home from Baltimore meal sites.