Kids Menu
New Museum Kids Menu provides families with activities to learn about contemporary art and ideas at home.
Kids Menu is designed for young children working with teachers or caregivers. For lesson plans and resources written for students in grades 6-12 learning in the classroom, or at home, visit our Educator resources page.
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Expressive Geometry: Judy Chicago
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Materials:
- Pre-cut foam shapes, foam sheets, heavyweight paper, or cardstock
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Glue, scotch tape, or masking tape
- Drawing paper
- Ink pads, paint, or other coloring media
- Brushes and small cups of water if using paint
Envision Community: Pepón Osorio
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Materials:
- Paper and pencil
- Drawing media as available, including markers, crayons, oil pastels, colored pencils
Hybrid Creatures: Wangechi Mutu
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Materials:
- Paper and pencil
- Modeling or air-dry clay
- Shells, feathers, beads, yarn, fabric or lace scraps, and other textured materials
- Glue
- Optional: acrylic or watercolor paint or markers
- Optional: soil or sand
- Optional: pet hair or human hair from a comb or brush
Home Museum: Theaster Gates
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Materials:
- Books, objects, cards, photographs, or keepsakes that remind you of a special person, place, event, or experience
- A shelf, windowsill, dresser, or table where you can organize your objects
Self Reflections: Kapwani Kiwanga
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Materials:
- A mirror of any size
- A window or windows that receive enough light for you to see your reflection
- Paper
- Drawing and/or painting media (pencils, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, watercolor, tempera or acrylic paint – you choose!)
- A pencil and eraser for your initial sketches
Mapping Family: Robert Colescott
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Materials:
- Access to printed maps and/or the internet to research maps of the place, journey, or migration you wish to represent
- Paper
- Drawing and/or painting media (pencils, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, watercolor, tempera, or acrylic paint—your choice!)
- Optional: scissors and glue if you decide to incorporate collage
- Optional: a photograph or portrait of the family member whose migration story you’re sharing, if you intend to include their image
- Optional: memories or stories from the person whose migration or place you’re mapping
Autobiographical Fantasy: Faith Ringgold
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Materials:
- Plain paper
- Lined paper to write out story ideas
- Pencil and eraser
- Coloring tools you have available: markers, watercolor, tempera or acrylic paint, colored pencils, crayons, or oil pastels
- Optional: brushes and a small cup of water if painting
- Optional: a mirror or photograph if you include a self-portrait
- Optional: fabric scraps, patterned papers, magazines, or catalogs you can cut
- Optional: scissors and glue to add patterned papers or fabrics
Palettes of Power: Faith Ringgold
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Materials:
- Plain paper
- Pencil and eraser
- Coloring tools you have available, including markers, tempera or acrylic paint, colored pencils, crayons, or oil pastels
- Optional: brushes and a small cup of water if painting
- Optional: a photograph or reference image of a person or people to draw
- Optional: access to the internet to research colors representing a place, feeling or idea
- Optional: a mirror, if you decide to make a self-portrait
Protest Posters: Faith Ringgold
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Materials:
- Plain paper of any scale for your design, but larger than standard 8.5 × 11” if you want your poster to be seen from a distance
- Pencil and eraser
- Coloring tools as available, including markers, colored pencils, crayons, or oil pastels
- Optional: a ruler to draw straight lines and/or shapes
- Optional: alphabet stencils for tracing letters
- Optional: scanner and printer or photocopier
Quilted Stories: Faith Ringgold
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Materials:
- Plain paper or fabric for drawing, painting, and collaging
- Markers, colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolor, acrylic paint, or any other drawing or painting supplies
- Magazines, newspapers, catalogs, or books that you can cut and use to make a collage
- Old clothing, fabric, or fabric scraps you’re allowed to cut
- Scissors
- Wet school glue
- Optional: digital images of family members, people you admire from history or today, and a printer
Layers and Light: Samara Scott
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Discarded plastics that are transparent or semi-transparent, including plastic bags, plastic packaging, plastic bottles or containers, bubble wrap, or even clear packing tape
- Other discarded objects found at home, like clothing, small containers, pieces of wood, paper, cardboard, and metal (Be sure to include flat materials you can sandwich between layers of plastic or paper, such as leaves or fabric scraps.)
- Semi-transparent papers, like tissue paper or tracing paper
- Glue or tape
- String or yarn, and/or a nail or pushpin for hanging
- Scissors
Containers for Care: Erin Jane Nelson
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Air-dry clay, play dough, or other clay you can use at home
- Optional: If you don’t have clay, ask an adult if you can make salt dough from water, flour, and salt. This video shows you how. Salt dough can be baked or air-dried after you shape it. Check with an adult and ask for help before baking it.
- Optional: soil, dirt, or sand; this can be mixed with clay to create different textures and color
- Magazines, catalogues, newspapers, or other print media
- Glue or tape
- Scissors
- Organic materials, which might include flower petals, leaves, bark, twigs, shells from nuts eaten at home, wildflowers, or grasses found outside
- Optional: markers or paint (preferably acrylic or tempera paint) to add color and texture to your clay or the surface of your assemblage
- Optional: a journal and a writing implement (pen, pencil), or a sketchbook and drawing tools (crayons, pencil, colored pencils, markers)
Materials Transformation: Nickola Pottinger
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Paper or cardboard to serve as a surface
- Scissors
- Glue, tape, and/or a stapler
- Discarded papers: newspapers, mail, magazines, cardboard (Please ask an adult for permission first before using these!)
- Optional: oil pastels or other drawing or painting supplies to add color, shapes, abstract forms, and texture onto your collage
Looking Up: Maryam Hoseini, Rindon Johnson, and Jordan Strafer
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- A journal
- A sketchbook or paper for drawing or painting
- If drawing, choose one of the following materials (if available): oil pastels, colored pencils, OR markers.
- If painting, chose from the following materials (if available): a paint brush; choose watercolor, tempera, OR acrylic paint; a cup filled with water. If you have more than one brush, you might choose to use multiple brushes to experiment with different brush strokes that result from the various sizes and shapes of the bristles; or to use a different brush for each selected color of paint mediums like tempera and acrylic that are a little more difficult to rinse than watercolor.
- If writing, you’ll need a pencil or pen.
- A view outside a window, or a safe outdoor spot where you can see the sky.
- Optional: sunglasses, especially if you’re viewing the sky outside.
Make a Move: NIC Kay
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Materials:
- A device that records video to use on your own or with the help of a family member or friend
- Clothes that you feel comfortable moving in
- Sound or music
- A site for your performance where you feel safe and have ongoing access
- Optional: a full-length mirror
Performing Identity: Lynn Hershman Leeson
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Materials:
- Paper
- Pen or pencil
- Magazines, catalogues, newspapers
- Scissors
- Clothing in different styles (either your own, a sibling’s, or parent’s)
- A mirror
- A device for recording video or photographs
- Optional: a printer to print out photographs
Mixed Media Memories: Mark Bradford
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Printed materials, like pamphlets, photographs, or maps that you are allowed to cut or alter, or printed copies of these materials
- Access to the internet to find photographs of the place you visited or an event you attended
- Paint and/or drawing materials (examples include crayons, markers, oil pastels, colored pencils)
- Paintbrushes
- Paper
- Optional: scissors; glue; a printer to print digital maps, emails, and/or photographs
Commemorative Cloud: Kerry James Marshall
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials
- Paper
- Drawing supplies: markers, pens, pencils
- Cotton balls or tissue
- Glue
- Large piece of sturdy paper or cardboard
- Scissors
- Optional: a computer and printer to source images
- Optional: hole punch and string/yarn
Family Album: LaToya Ruby Frazier
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials
- Camera or device that can record photographs (e.g. a phone or tablet)
- Existing photographs
- Optional: A book or album for printed photographs, or access to a digital device where you can organize photographs into a narrative
Significant Care: Rashid Johnson
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials
- Toys, mementos, books, photographs, and other objects reminiscent of a special person, place or event
- If you’re representing a family or personal ritual, objects might include games, books, food labels, cookware
- A dedicated space to organize your objects into an installation (this might include a shelf or shelves, or an area of your room, including the floor or a tabletop)
- Music that reminds you of the person, event, or experience of the ritual, and a device for playing music
- Optional: live music you sing or play on an instrument
- Optional: live plants or cut flowers from inside the home or a garden.
- Alternatively, fallen leaves, flowers, acorns or other natural items you find outside can be used.
Abstract Language: Julie Mehretu
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials
- Paper
- Drawing media – pencils, crayons, markers or oil pastels
- Optional: photographs of the event of experience you wish to memorialize
- Optional: magazines or newspapers with bold letters you can cut out and collage onto your drawing
- Optional: glue and scissors to cut out and add letters
Memory Capsule: Terry Adkins
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Plastic or glass recycled container one can see through
- Elmer’s glue, or other wet glue
- Scissors
- Objects related to memories of a person or event, including photographs, buttons, charms, ticket stubs, letters, photographs, and other small objects. Ask an adult if it’s okay to glue them to a container.
- Optional: paper and pencil. If there are objects you want to include, but don’t want to damage or affix to your container with glue, consider tracing them on paper or cardboard and cutting out their shapes instead. Use a collection of silhouettes or drawings of photographs to show the meaningful items.
Photo Exchange: Dawoud Bey
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Materials
- Existing photographs
- A camera
- Optional: a printer
- Optional: a scanner and digital editing software
- Optional: a picture frame large enough for both photographs, or use cardboard paper, or objects around the house to create a frame.
Finding Words: Glenn Ligon
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Paper
- Scissors
- Glue or tape
- Magazines, catalogs or newspapers
- A pen or pencil for writing
Fake ID: Paul Ramírez-Jonas
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Materials
- Paper
- Scissors
- Glue or tape
- Magazines, catalogs, or newspapers
- Pencil or pen
- ID, transit, and membership cards, plus other identifying documents
- Selfies or group photographs
- Optional: index cards; printouts
Animal Persona: Nayland Blake
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Drawing or plain paper
- Scissors
- Glue or tape
- Stapler
- Pencils and drawing media (markers, crayons, colored pencils)
- Yarn, thread or string
- Optional: beads, buttons, ribbons and other decorations
Mapping History: Anna Boghiguian
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Pens, markers, crayons, pencils or other drawing media
- Paper
- Online and/or printed maps for research
Message in a Bottle: Nari Ward
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Paper to draw and/or write on
- Pen, pencil and/or drawing materials (markers, crayons, colored pencils)
- Recycled bottle or container, preferably one you can see through
- Windowsill or sunny indoor spot
Fictional Figures: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
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Materials
- Pens, markers, pencils or other drawing media
- Paper
- Printed or digital photographs (these can include people you know)
- Catalogs, magazines, newspapers
- Scissors
- Glue
- Optional: Paint (watercolor, tempera or acrylic), brushes, small cup for water, paper plate for a palette
Teeming With Life: Ensayos
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Materials
- Pens, markers, pencils or other drawing media
- Paper or a sketchbook
- A smart phone or device for recording sound and video
- An adult or older sibling to accompany you on visits to the water
Dear ______: Sharon Hayes
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Materials
- Pen or pencil
- Paper
- Newspapers, magazines and/or online journalism for research
- An adult who can help with writing
- Optional, if available: a microphone
- Optional: a device to record your statement instead of writing it down
Fashion Futures: Jeffrey Gibson
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Materials
- Fabric in different colors and patterns
- Buttons, beads, ribbons, lace, trim and other materials
- Wet glue, like Elmers
- Scissors
- A needle and thread
- Stapler and staples
- Paper and drawing media
- Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Optional: fabric markers, acrylic paint, paintbrushes and a cup for water.
Earthworks: Hans Haacke
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Materials
- Natural materials from outside, possibly twigs, stones, leaves, branches, acorns or flowers that we find on the ground
- Natural materials we collect from inside, possibly plants, seeds, beans, fruit
- Soil and/or sand if available
- Pits, seeds or stones from fruit you’ve eaten, like an avocado pit or tomato seeds, if available
- A container or surface area for planting that can withstand water, if available
- Glue (optional)
Masquerading: Wynne Greenwood
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Scrap cardboard, including packaging and cereal boxes
- Scissors
- Scrap or recycled paper, including magazines and newspapers
- Colored pencils, markers, crayons or paint
- Wet glue and/or glue sticks
- Assorted found and craft materials, such as fabric scraps, yarn, pipe cleaners, buttons, beads, and/or plastic bottlecaps
Paint With Your Food: Carmen Argote
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Materials
- White paper of any size. You may wish to experiment with different textures and weights of paper.
- Old clothes that can be stained, apron, or smock
- Cardboard or plastic to protect surfaces
- Small take-out or food containers that can hold liquid paint brush, and/or a sponge
- water
- One or more of the following: canned or fresh red beet, fresh or frozen spinach, ground or fresh turmeric root, carrot, fresh or thawed frozen raspberries and blueberries, red cabbage
Optional Materials (to be used with an adult helper)
- knife and cutting board
- vegetable peeler
- stove
- food processor
Collective Words: Nari Ward
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- Your collection of different fonts and lettering for inspiration from “Look Around.”
- A large piece of cardboard. Size can vary, but consider if your sign will be held in your hands, or put on display, and if you want it to be seen from a distance and how. You may use poster board, or a flattened box, cut to a size that is comfortable for your plans.
- Pencil
- Markers or crayons
Make A Loom and Weave: Diedrick Brackens
Click here to view, download or print the full activity.
Materials
- A cardboard rectangle of a comfortable size to hold and turn (6”x12”)
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Yarn or embroidery thread
- Tape
- Plastic embroidery needle (optional)
- Ribbon, scraps of fabric cut in strips, other long flexible materials (optional)
Making Space: Lubaina Himid
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Materials:
- Tape
- Assorted household recycled materials: boxes, packing supplies, and cardboard tubes
A View From The Clouds: Peter Saul
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Materials:
- Pencil (a no. 2 pencil works well; if you have colored pencils, those can be used too)
- Paper of any size
- Crayons or markers
Lessons and Stories: Jordan Casteel
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View Finding: Jordan Casteel
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Materials:
- One index card, or thin sheet of cardboard, or sturdy paper cut to 3×5 or 4×6 inches, a size that won’t bend and can be held up comfortably with one hand
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Paper of larger than the index card (letter sized or larger)
- Colored pencils or crayons
- Images from magazines, newspapers, posters, and/or books
Naturally Fantastic Worlds: Daiga Grantina
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Markers or colored pencils
- Paper (either 8½” x 11” printer paper and/or colorful construction paper)
- Scissors
- Different binding materials: glue, colorful tape, masking tape, clips, pins
- Optional:
- Collect different material that you might use in your assemblage, like fabric scraps, cut up boxes, washed take out or food packaging, foil, cellophane
- Chord/string to hang your work
- Phone, camera
What’s In The Fridge? Peter Saul
Click here to view, download, or print the full activity.
Materials:
- Pencil
- Markers or colored pencils
- Paper (either 8½” x 11” printer paper or construction paper)
- Scissors
- Tape or glue
- Magnets or masking tape
The Faces of Places: Jordan Casteel
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Materials:
- Pencil (a no. 2 pencil works well; if you have colored pencils, those can be used too)
- Paper
At Home With Portraiture: Jordan Casteel
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Materials:
- Digital camera (a cellphone works!)
- Crayons
- Paper
- Another person to make art with you