143 Pittsburgh's Day of Kindness Vinyl Stickers

Once you have welcomed the students, give them a brief explanation about Mr. Rogers and what we will be doing today. Here are two videos to show students

Linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVtGpz_baoA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtSzREbUolQ

After the videos have students go to the website for 143 Day of Kindness in PA

Linked here: https://143day.dced.pa.gov/

“1-4-3 or I-Love-You. From the City of Brotherly Love to the birthplace of Fred Rogers, America’s most beloved neighbor, Pennsylvania is a place where kindness and gratitude to those who make up our community is part of who we are. That’s what makes PA such an incredible place to live.

Fred Rogers regularly used 143 as his special code for “I Love You” – based on the number of letters in each word. From today forward, the 143rd day of the year is #143DayinPA-a day when we encourage our residents to share the acts of kindness and good deeds they do for each other.

In times of uncertainty, simple acts of kindness mean the most. Help us reflect on how grateful we are to have each other and promote your kind acts now by sharing on social with #143DayInPA! Let’s all do our part and help Pennsylvanians feel the love. Happy #143DayInPA!”

Inform students that today we will honor Mr Rogers in a Day of Kindness by making 143 vinyl stickers that will remind us to always be kind.

Make sure to have several different designs of the 143 cutting out on the vinyl cutter for students to view or an example for them to hold.

Have students open Inkscape. Allow students 5-10 minutes to create and explore with limited or no guidance from the instructor.

Save the file as “STUDENT NAME” and “143 STICKER”

Set up the document to the size of the vinyl cutter

Have students create their own simple design using 143 in the artwork.

(the noun project is recommend if using outline from computer)

In this example we will start with a basic heart shape. This will act as our background and make our sticker easy to apply.

Next we will make our top layer, a slightly smaller heart. This will be our red vinyl.

Using align and distribute tool center the top heart over our background heart. You can use the Edit paths by nodes (N) tool to adjust the points to evenly fit around the heart.

Now for our text, choose a font and type 143. This will be aligned and punched out of the top layer (red heart) but not from the background heart.

Align the numbers to the center of the red heart vertically and punch out Path > Difference

Last step of designing, separate top and bottom layers. Have students choose their vinyl colors and send over to be cut.

SAFETY FIRST

DO NOT touch the tip of the blade with your fingers. DO NOT place hands near the platen

while in operation. WAIT until vinyl is cutting before removing from machine.

Load the Material

Set Origin

Perform Cutting

Remove the Material and Weed Vinyl

Now that our artwork is cut and weeded, we will be using transfer tape to apply the top layer onto our backing.

The sticker is now complete! Students may apply them to their notebooks, laptops, ect. and have a reminder just like Mr Rogers to always be kind.

Encourage students to discuss the design process and what they plan to do as their act of kindness to honor Mr. Rogers.