Explore + Discover Together: Beads

Add an easy DIY scratch-off map to any family program that uses beads. Participants will gain a little exposure to a wide variety of world cultures, marvel at human ingenuity and creativity, and feel connected as they join a long tradition of human creativity.

Full Program Description

Did you know that people have been using beads for more than 120,000 years? Learn how people throughout the world use beads, then craft a simple sewn-bead framed artwork perfect for gift-giving.

Supplies

This DIY scratch-off map activity could be used in any program that uses beads, so your supply list may be quite different.

beads
pipe cleaners
embroidery hoops
burlap
scratch-off stickers
printed maps

Assets

11″ x 17″ printable scratch-off DIY map activity | printable 17″ x 11″ pdf | copy & edit in Canva

abridged 8.5″ x 11″ scratch-off map DIY activity | printable 8.5″ x 11″ pdf | copy & edit in Canva

Sally Battle

May 3, 2025

anti-bias activities, arts + crafts, cost, holiday, moderate staff time, scavenger hunt, staff time, stem, substantial cost

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We recommend...

As always, we recommend pre-reading this book before reading it to your children or group.

In this story, Milo and his sister travel by subway train to visit someone special. Along the way, Milo imagines where other people on the train are headed.

Towards the end of the book, it is revealed that Milo’s mother is incarcerated and that Milo and his sister are on their way to visiting her.

In our workshop, we chose to end the story before Milo’s destination was revealed. We were meeting over Zoom, which made conversations difficult, and we felt that we would not be able to give a conversation about incarceration the attention and time it deserved.

We emailed parents and caregivers to let them know why we did not choose to read the whole story and encouraged them to finish the book on their own. We also encourage parents and caregivers to watch the entire fascinating video from illustrator Christian Robinson.

Be sure to check out the Penguin Random House Teacher’s Guide (a free downloadable pdf) with ideas for talking about this topic with children plus tons of other great material.

As leader, you have a couple of options in introducing this project:

You can tell kids that they’ll be making a color-changing slime. Then they can make a more informed choice about the color of thermochromic pigment and food coloring that they choose. Click here to get a better idea of how to choose the colors of the pigment and food coloring to predict the color of the slime when warm and cool.
Or you can have them make the slime and play with it until they discover a change in color. If you want to go this route, make sure that you choose a thermochromic pigment that changes temperature at a lower temperature (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit); otherwise it may take a while for the slime to warm up and you may need to tell the kids regardless.
Or you can tell them that they’ll be making a slime that has a hidden power and ask them to figure out what it is.

Explore + Discover Together: Beads

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