Mask Lab teaching notes

For teachers, co-op leaders and parents. One lesson of about forty-five minutes, for ages eight to fourteen, that ends with every student holding a card mask they designed, printed and cut. Two turns follow for classes that want them: the math of where a cut goes and how a pattern repeats, and the drama of what light does to a face. Each part says what to say, what students do, what their screens should show, what usually goes wrong, and a question to ask. You do not need to have made a mask or to code.

Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work.A first lesson: Everyone makes a mask for a character in a play or a story, checks they can see out of it, prints the card template, and wears it. Before the printing, ask why the eye holes on the paper are further apart than the eyes on the face.

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About this lesson

One lesson, three parts. Students make a mask in 3D, check they can see out of it, and print it as a card template at its real size, then cut it out and wear it. It is at its best when the mask belongs to someone: a character in a play, a story the class is reading, a parade.

Everything you are asked to say or point at is written here in the words that are on the screen. The lesson only uses what it has already taught.

Before you start. Print templates at 100 percent, not fit to page, or the eye holes will not be where the eyes are. An adult helps with any knife. The masks to start from are theater, carnival, Halloween and animal masks, with no gore; keep it that way. The lab checks geometry only and never says a mask is safe to wear: look at each real one before it goes on a face.

How to read this guide

  1. Say what to tell the class, in a sentence or two. Use your own words if you like.
  2. Students do the steps, in order. Read them out or put them on the board.
  3. Screens should show what you should see over a shoulder when it is going right.
  4. What goes wrong the usual snags, and what to say.
  5. Ask one question whose answer tells you it landed.

Part 1: make a mask (15 minutes)

  1. Say A mask is a shell over a face with holes in the right places. Pick a mask, make it yours, and put the eyes where your eyes are.
  2. Students do Open the lab. On the Style bench pick a mask. On the Shape bench pick an Outline, then move Width, Top edge and Sides lift and watch it change; move Nose and Expression. Under Size, slide to your own eye spacing if you know it; the line under the slider gives a small child's to an adult's. On the Eyes bench press a pair of eyes (Eyes: almond, Eyes: star and the others) and a mouth if the mask covers one. Drag a cut to move it, or tap the mask where it should go. Pick up the Saw and drag across the mask: with Mirror on, the same cut appears on the other side.
  3. Screens should show A mask on the stage, the readout under it saying how far apart the eyes are and how wide the mask is. Press Head over the stage: a plain gray head appears under the mask, with the eye holes over its eyes.
  4. What goes wrong Dragging turns the mask instead of cutting: a tool has to be picked (Saw, Engrave or Punch), and pressing it again, or clicking off the mask, puts it down. A pair of eyes pressed twice adds a second pair on top: press Remove on the picked cut, or tick the boxes and remove them together. The Head button over the stage puts the gray head under the mask and takes it away again.
  5. Ask What is the difference between Cut through and Engrave? (Engrave carves a line into the front without making a hole.)

Part 2: can you see out? (10 minutes)

  1. Say A mask you cannot see out of is a mask you trip in. The lab can look out through the holes from where your eyes would be.
  2. Students do On the Eyes bench press Can you see out? Read the three numbers. Make the eye holes taller (the Size slider on a picked eye) and press it again. Try a domino and a full face mask and compare.
  3. Screens should show A sentence like Each eye sees 58 degrees to its side, 30 up and 30 down, and a line about tipping your head to see where you step. A full mask with no mouth or nose holes adds a line that it needs a way to breathe.
  4. What goes wrong You cannot see straight ahead: an eye hole is not in front of an eye; press a pair of eyes again or drag one back. The answer disappeared: it clears whenever the mask changes, since it would be wrong; press it again.
  5. Ask Why does a taller eye hole let you see further down? (The edge of the hole is what stops the line from your eye; a lower edge lets it go further down.)

Part 3: print it, cut it, wear it (20 minutes)

  1. Say Now it leaves the screen. The template is the mask laid flat at its real size.
  2. Students do On the Export bench, under A card template to print, press Letter or A4. Print at 100 percent. Glue the print to card, cut along the black lines, cut out the eyes and the slots, and if there are gray wedges (darts), cut each out and glue its two edges together from behind. Thread elastic through the slots, or tape a stick to the side.
  3. Screens should show A PDF with the mask's outline, the eye holes with a small blue cross in each, the slots, and for a full face a gray wedge on each side. The Export bench says how many pages and darts.
  4. What goes wrong The holes are not over the eyes: the page was printed fit to page; print again at 100 percent. The mask is too big for the page: it is tiled over two pages that join edge to edge. The card will not curve: the darts are not glued closed yet.
  5. Ask On the paper the eye holes are further apart than your eyes. Why do they land on your eyes once the mask is on? (The paper measures round the curve of the mask; bent back round the face, the straight distance between the holes is your eye spacing again.)
No printer: the .svg under For a cutting machine or a laser cuts the same lines, and the 3D model and the .stl are on the same bench.

A math turn: where a cut goes, and how a pattern repeats (ages 10 and up, 15 minutes)

Two ideas: a place is two numbers, and a remainder can make a pattern.

  1. Say Every place on the mask is two numbers: millimeters across from the middle of the nose, and millimeters up from the line through the eyes.
  2. Students do Open Cut by code on the Eyes bench. Type cut star at -30 across, 40 up, 16 mm and press Run. Then add a line that says mirror and press Run. Then try repeat 5 times: cut circle at n times 12 plus -24 across, 30 up, 8 mm. Press Blocks to see the same program as blocks. Then give the mask diamonds (pick Butterfly, or on the Shape bench under Painted on press Diamonds), go to the Paint bench, and tap the blue words in the diamonds' rule.
  3. Screens should show A star above one eye, then its twin above the other; a row of five holes; and diamonds that change their pattern when the rule changes: divide by 2 is a check, divide by 3 by the row is stripes.
  4. What goes wrong Line 1 says not understood: each part needs its comma, as in the examples under The commands. A cut is off the mask: across and up are millimeters from the nose; a full face reaches about 75 across and 85 up.
  5. Ask What does mirror do to the across number, and what does it do to the up number? (It changes the sign of across, and leaves up alone.)

A drama turn: light from above, light from below (ages 8 and up, 10 minutes)

The same face, two characters. Stage lighting is built on where the light comes from.

  1. Say Put your mask on a dark stage and move the light. Decide which light suits your character.
  2. Students do Press Stage light over the stage. On the Light bench press Above, then Below, then At the side. Try a colored light. On the Export bench press Lit from above and from below to save both side by side.
  3. Screens should show A dark stage with the mask lit: from above the eye holes go dark and the face looks calm; from below the brows and cheeks throw shadows upward.
  4. What goes wrong Nothing changes when a place is pressed: the stage was off; the place buttons turn it on, or press Stage light. The mask looks washed out: move Brightness down.
  5. Ask Why do the shadows point up when the light is below? (A shadow falls on the side away from the light.)

More help

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Page last reviewed October 2026.