Remember when I said there is no math gene? I meant it. But to underscore it, I’m going to share my son’s artwork. What does art have to do with math genes? Take a look at the photo. These are some of the art pieces that are hanging on my wall created by my oldest son. (My youngest son has an art wall, as well.) I’ll have to admit, these pieces are pretty good. The longboard piece (Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris…
Meaningful math with a purpose! This great hands-on lesson gets students doing math while designing targets. Students become comfortable using the area formula for circles. And the best part is, their targets are set up and used during the school’s fall carnival. Watch the video below for the entire lesson plan. CCSS: 7.G.4 TEKS: 6th grade 6C, 8A, 8B Link to video. .
This is one of my favorite math and art activities. That’s because it involves a mathematical pattern. Using centimeter graph paper, we start with the basic unit which, in this case, is simply one square. I then ask students what they think the area would be if we doubled the size of the square. The first thing they blurt out before thinking is “two”. I then use the graph paper to show them that if I double the square (double…
Kids love geometry. It’s so hands-on. At least, it should be. I can’t imagine trying to teach kids geometry without letting them draw, cut, design, build. 3-D geometry taught on paper? I don’t think so! Unless, of course, you’re designing nets. And that’s exactly what I did with a group of sixth graders. We were working on volume and I thought it would be fun to re-design the soda can. It required a lot of hands-on work that involved graph…
During a unit on 2-dimensional geometry I use art to tie in the polygons we’ve been studying. I share a variety of paintings by the artist Pablo Picasso and we talk about the shapes they see. Then, using the idea of straight lines and hard edges, students create their own work of Cubism out of construction paper.