K-12 Classroom Resources

A photograph of a group of children talking and sitting and talking in a table group of four in a classroom. On the desk in front of them are basic construction materials such as paper, cardboard, and straws. In the background are other table groups.

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K-12 Classroom Resources

Design has the power to change the world. Explore lesson plans and activities to help you empower your students to view the world with optimism and apply design literacy in their daily lives. Also visit Professional Development Resources for strategies and approaches on how to integrate design in your classroom. For information on Design Field Trips, visit School Programs.

 

Design Spotlight: Our Shared Future

Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by exploring how design shapes our world. Design a logo for your community, discover impactful innovation from across the United States, and learn how industrial objects are made in America today.

Design a Logo for your community

A close up photograph of a black hat with red, green, and black circular patch, that has a symbol in the middle of two black hands holding each other. Surrounding the hands in red capital letters reads, “Black- Pride-Culture”.
Grades: 2-5
Explore icons, symbols, and logos to create a design that represents your community.

EXPLORE DESIGN ACROSS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Grades: 6-12
Get inspired by designs that have made an impact over the past 250 years from Cooper Hewitt and other Smithsonian collections.

MADE IN AMERICA: THE INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF CHRISTOPHER PAYNE

Grades: 8-12
Follow Payne back to three factories he has photographed to learn more about the craft of American industrial and artisanal manufacturing.

NEW TO DESIGN? START WITH DESIGN SKILL BUILDERS

Short, design–focused activities and warmups that help students in grades K-12 build creative thinking and problem-solving skills across subject areas. Each set includes activities, worksheets, and prompts that can be used independently or combined over time.

Design Skill Builders →

 

 

 

 

 

Explore further: put design skills into practice

Apply design skills through hands-on activities and projects that encourage students to make, prototype, explore design disciplines and history, and with their communities. 

 

An Atlas of Es Devlin: A Creative Curriculum

A black and white line sketch illustration of three hands drawing in different directions.
Grades: 7-12, Subjects: ELA, Art
Inspired by the ways Devlin sustains and adapts her artistic process, this 8-part curriculum is designed to foster creative thinking.

Design a Streetscape

A green activity card depicts an active sidewalk shared by children skateboarding and dog walking with a bicyclist and an elder adult.
Grades: 1-4, Subjects: Geography, Civics, Engineering
Explore your local environment and prototype a streetscape for your community to enjoy!

Design a Self-Expression Poster Inspired by Edgardo Giménez

A composite image of a person's back who has butterfly wings and five overlapping blue arches topped by blue sparkly stars
Grades: 9-12, Subjects: History, Graphic Design
Explore how Argentine designer Edgardo Giménez used graphic design techniques to express his identity and challenge social norms. Then flex your iteration skills by using a photomontage technique to design your own self-expressive poster.

Design Storytelling: Objects & Environments

A colorful hand-drawn illustration of random different objects on a cream background. All the objects consist of the same color pallet of light pink, red, green, and brown. The objects range from a rocking chair, sweater, origami crane, lamp, bracelet, glasses, and photograph.
Grades: 6-7, Subjects: English Language Arts, History, Media Arts
Practice writing and visualizing stories about a personal object or family heirloom.

Observational Collage Map

A blue hand-drawn cartoon-like map from a birds eye view. The map is of different streets and landmarks such as a fountain, subway entrance, to store or building entrance.
Grades: 9-12, Subjects: Geography, Science
In this activity you will work on design skills such as observing, building curiosity, collaborating, and analyzing through exploring the architectural and geographic features in your community and collect visual clues that will help you create a collage map.

Design it Yourself: Design A Prototype for a user

A photograph of various recycled materials such as egg carton, plastic fruit carton, straws, toilet paper roll, and red netting.
Grades: 2-5
Learn to think like a designer by prototyping a solution engineered for a specific user.

Design it Yourself: Practice Design Observation

A photograph of a white notebook on a wooden table. The notebook is open to two pages that are filled of various plants that have been taped down to the pages.
Grades: 2-5
Follow along to practice observation, used in design, art, and science.

Explore more on Smithsonian learning lab

Discover more activities to try in your classroom 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 Transportation

Grades: 2-4
Design a way to make transportation more comfortable.

Design a Zine: Family Cornerstones

A close up of a black and purple zine cover that reads, “Yell” in bold lowercase purple letters.
Grades: 6-8
Inspired by the way zines have amplified diverse voices, this activity explores how to craft a zine in celebration of our communities and identities.

Cas Holman: Good Toys Make Good People

A photograph of two young light skinned children playing with a wooden structure.
Grades: 6-8
Explore how Cas Holman designs tools for imagination and empowers children through play.

Faith Ringgold: Posters & Protest

A close up of a poster designed by Faith Ringgold, called Woman Free Yourself. Vertical poster divided into 8 alternating triangles of purple and green triangles. The words, woman, free, your, and self are written in bold capitalized letters where each word takes up the space of a triangle and are all rotated in different directions. The color of the text is opposite to whatever background its on- purple text on a green background and vice versa.
Grades: 9-12, Subjects: History, Civil Rights Movement
Analyze political posters designed by artist, author, and activist Faith Ringgold, and design your own protest poster about a civil rights issue today.