Math at the Art Table

   
I saw this Christmas card idea over at whatever… and loved it.

Lately I’ve noticed a lot more children picking up scissors
and snipping on anything they can get their hands on;
paper, ribbon, pipe cleaners, anything.

So I thought this would be a perfect art activity for their interest
and the time of the year.

But I didn’t realize how much math could work into it
until I watched this young man work on his card.
     
First he’s trying to decide how long the strip should be for
the base of his tree.
     
He decides to measure the gold paper to the width of the card
then cut.
     
And continued to measure and cut to build his tree.
      
Stopping briefly to cut a much smaller piece to use as the
‘stem’ of the tree.
 
Once he worked to the top of his tree he started to decorate it using precut
stickers and the shaped hole punches to make snowflakes and stars.
       
This art project included working on measuring, sizing and sequencing.
As well as discussion of the shapes he used.

Then there were children that just enjoyed the cutting.