Fog Painting, Fantastic Foot Machine, and My Story: Scrolling Through San Francisco

Fantastic Foot Machine

Step into fun and turn your feet into a wacky contraption! Explore movement and motion while making a moving machine using your feet and a roll of tape. Team up with your family and make a whole fleet of Foot Machines and see if you can race!

Materials: 

1. Paper
2. Markers or Drawing Materials
3. Dowel/Straws
4. A roll of Tape
5. Scissors

Instructions:

1. Trace your feet. Customize them into animal or monster feet if you want, or draw patterns!
2. Cut straw/dowel in half and it to the back of feet
3. Cut the strawl/dowel in half and tape the halves on opposite sides of the inside of the tape roll
4. Insert straws and feet onto straw/dowels.
5. Roll your feet and watch them go!

Open ended questions:

1. Did you need to try different ways of rolling your Foot Machine?
2. Do you think different sized feet would make it move differently?
3. Do you think that using different types and sizes of tape would make it move differently?
4. Are there similarities between your Foot Machine and other vehicles like cars and trains?

Activity by Lizzy Johnson

Fog Painting

What happens when you combine science and watercolor painting? A foggy explosion! Make your own landmark with baking soda watercolor and watch the fog roll in when you pour vinegar over your masterpiece. 

Materials: 

1. Paper
2. Pens (preferably sharpie)
3. Paintbrush
4. Liquid Watercolor or food coloring
5. Baking Soda
6. Vinegar
7. Dropper (if you have it!)

Instructions:

1. Draw your favorite San Francisco Landmark
2. Combine 2-3 drops of liquid watercolor or food coloring with baking soda
3. Paint your baking soda paint onto your drawing
4. Drop a few drops of vinegar onto your creation and water the fog roll in!

Open ended questions:

1. Why did you choose to draw that landmark?
2. How much does the fog change when you change the amount of baking soda combined with watercolor?
3. What does the paint look like after the fog rolls out?

Activity by Allie Stephens

My Story: Scrolling Through San Francisco

San Francisco is home to many diverse families, cultures, and communities. What have you experienced in San Francisco, and what story do you want to tell? Share your adventures and explore storyboarding by constructing your own polaroid scroll using upcycled materials and your imagination!

Materials:

1. Cereal Box or anything of similar material and build
2. two thick straws (boba straws are perfect) or paper towel rolls
3. tape
4. scissors
5. drawing utensils
6. paper
7. decorating materials

Instructions:

1. Find any kind of cereal box at home and cut four holes on the side, and a rectangle in the front
2. Insert a paper towel roll or thick straw through the top and another on the bottom
3. Create a picture or storyboard panel on a piece of paper about a story you want to tell. 
4. Tape the ends of the paper to the top and bottom rolls and scroll and adjust so that the paper is taut

Open Ended Questions:

1. Describe a favorite story or memory in San Francisco. 
2. What places did you see? Who did you interact with? 
3. What were your favorite spots? What was the neatest thing you’ve done in San Francisco?

Activity by Justine Mercadal