Make String Art

What You Need:

• Square of plywood or balsa wood around 12 by 12 inches (can be found at your local craft store)
• ½ inch nails
• Ball peen hammer
• 2 different sized plates for tracing, one an inch or so larger than the other
• Pencil
• Ruler
• 2 complimentary colors of string (blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green)
• Old magazine

What You Do:

1. Help your child position the larger plate so that it's centered on the wood board, and have him use a pencil to lightly trace around the outside.
2. Now, have him position the smaller plate inside the larger circle and trace around the outside, creating a smaller circle inside the larger one.
3. Have your child use a ruler to measure and mark every half inch around each circle. As he works, he's also getting great practice with his math skills and concentration!
4. Now its time for some hammering! Place a magazine under the wood base to ensure his nails won't pound through the work table. Then, help him use the ball peen hammer to hammer a nail into each mark on both circles.
5. When the nails are all in, its time for some colorful string! Have him cut a length of string and tie it around a nail on the outside circle. Then, have him loop the string around the nails, first on the inside and then outside circle, creating a zigzagged design around the circle.
6. Next, he can use the other color of string to tie, loop, and zigzag on the nails that haven’t been looped with string.
7. Have him continue tying and looping lengths of string until each nail has been looped with a piece of string.

When he's all done, help him find a special spot to display finished geometric string art for the whole family to enjoy!