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The Artistic Side of Math – Pointillism

The Artistic Side of Math – Pointillism

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Tying in pointillism are during a unit on fractions, decimals, and percents is perfect! How? It begins with painter Georges Seurat. Seurat was a post-impressionist painter who painted by placing tiny, preceise brush strokes of different colors close to one another so they blend at a distance. I share with the students his painting The Circus and we discuss the patience it probably took to paint the whole thing using tiny dots! I then pass out loupes and colored comics…

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The Artistic Side of Math – Spiral Geometry

The Artistic Side of Math – Spiral Geometry

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Mathematics and nature often go hand-in-hand. In this lesson, students study the spirals of the nautilus and tie it in to a numerical sequence called the Fibonacci sequence. They use the sequence to re-design the nautilus using home-made compasses. I begin the lesson by showing the first few terms of the Fibonacci sequence and have students work together to see if they can figure out the pattern and the next few numbers in the sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5,…

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The Artistic Side of Math – Scaling

The Artistic Side of Math – Scaling

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Ancient Africans in Egypt enlarged pictures by using nets of squares. In this fun project, students re-construct a smaller picture into a very large picture. In mathematics, we call this dilation which is a type of trasformation studied in geometry. This is an activity I do with fourth graders and above. I first begin with a picture that I know the students will have fun re-constructing. Hence…Sponge Bob. Depending on the number of students who will be working on one…

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First Graders and Tape Measures

First Graders and Tape Measures

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Okay, that was fun! I handed my group of kindergartners and first graders tape measures (the non-metal kind) and told them they could measure whatever they wanted. What a hit! On so many levels. First, I showed them how they could measure how far they jumped. After being stuck inside all day due to rain, this was the perfect way to get them to move around a bit and still sneak in some great math. Once I showed them how…

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Fun and Simple Math Activities that Build Strong Number Sense in our Kids

Fun and Simple Math Activities that Build Strong Number Sense in our Kids

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Kids who have strong number sense understand what numbers are, how they relate to each other, and the affects that different operations have on them.  These kids can easily compose and decompose numbers and are able to make reasonable estimates making computation much easier.  In other words, kids with strong number sense are comfortable with numbers. And when kids are comfortable with numbers, math becomes much easier.  The good news is, helping our children develop a strong sense of numbers…

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