Family Resources

A photograph of a young dark-skinned child with long braided hair drawing. Across from her sits a dark-skinned man with short hair, a bear, and large dark rimmed glasses.

Explore more learning resources

Family Resources

Dive into a world of creativity and imagination with design activities that inspire and educate! Whether your child prefers to explore independently or enjoy collaborative projects with family, our resources provide endless opportunities for fun and learning at home. Activities are tailored for children aged 5-12. For current family workshops and more, visit Family Programs.

 

KIDS GALLERY GUIDES

Explore the galleries with our kid-friendly activity guides designed for ages 5-12. Print a guide at home or pick one up for free at the Visitor Experience desk. Each guide is filled with activities that encourage children to look, think, and discover design. 

Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial: Kids' Activity Guide

Bold purple text that looks like multiple tiles to create letters that read, “Making Home”. Below in bold black text says, “Smithsonian Design Triennial”. At the bottom is text that reads, “Kid’ Activity Guide. The background is a lilac purple.
Ages: 5-12
Explore the many meanings of home throughout the exhibition with scavenger hunts, drawing activities, and conversation prompts to share with your family.

Explore the Carnegie Mansion

Text and a digital illustration on a bright yellow background. Bold that reads, “Explore the Carnegie Mansion”, to the right side of the text is a hand-drawn illustration of a brown and tan mansion with many windows and growing vines climbing to the top of the building.
Ages: 5-12
Step back in time and uncover the details of the former home of Andrew Carnegie and his family. Hunt for shapes and patterns and learn about their family traditions.

Design Around Us

These fun to follow videos will have you designing everything from posters and patterns to your very own exhibition, and more.

Design A Bug Home

Colorful illustration of an insect hotel. The structure is divided into chambers filled with natural materials and paper tubes, providing various nesting sites for the beetle, the spider and the bee that populate the scene.
Grades: 2-4
Flex your building skills by designing a home for nature's tiniest architects - bugs!

Design a Mini Exhibit

A photograph of various action figures lined in a row. Behind them is a chalk board, that’s used to label the figures with jobs within a museum, such as conservator, curator, exhibition designer.
Grades: 1-6
Follow along to design a mini exhibit using objects found in your home.

Design a Pattern inspired by Eva Zeisel

A photograph of light-skinned hands holding a bright blue flat circular shaped vase. The vase sits on top of a different brightly colored textile that has the same shape pattern as the vase.
Grades: 1-6
Design a pattern using potato stamps.

Design Activity Books

These printable Design Activity books will get you thinking like a designer through fun activities and engaging storytelling. Available for download in English and Spanish.

Design at Home

A graphic background of different brightly colored overlapping shapes. On top is a white graphic outline of a square house, that has text within that reads, “Design at Home, activity book”
Grades: 1-4
Design is all around us! In Design at Home, you’ll gain hands-on experience in thinking like a designer. Explore design solutions, enjoy coloring pages, and dream up your next big idea.

Design Around Town

A digital cartoon-like illustration of a young dark-skinned girl with black hair who is holding a pencil and pumping her fist into the air.
Grades: 1-4
Follow 13-year-old Sofia as she travels around her hometown, noticing design everywhere she goes. You’ll get to help Sofia try out a variety of design disciplines, from graphic design to transportation design.

Explore more on the Smithsonian Learning Lab

Discover more activities to try at home on the Smithsonian Learning Lab. This digital platform inspires creativity and exploration with enriching materials. Access over 2 million images, recordings, and texts from the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 major research centers, the National Zoo, and more.

Design a Habitat

A white structure made of repeating diamond shaped windows. Inside the structure you can see green foliage.
Grades: 1-4
Follow along to design a habitat that can exist within an urban space.

Design an Expressive Letterform

A cropped black and white photograph of a dark-skinned woman’s eye and part of her forehead and black curly hair. Playful and curly hand written yellow text is overlayed on top of the image.
Grades: 1-4
Follow along to design an expressive letterform inspired by 2017 National Design Award Winner for Communication Design, Jennifer Morla. 

Design a Chair

A photograph of a red swivel chair in the shape of a heart.
Grades: 3-6
Follow the steps to design a chair, inspired by 2018 National Design Award Winner for Product Design, Blu Dot.