Integrated Math and Art Projects
Integrating math and art is a great way to motivate children to learn. For some students, math can be intimidating, while for other children, art can be intimidating. Combining the two subjects is a great way for students to find their strong suits and use their knowledge to support their learning in other areas. Help children build their creative and mathematical minds by finding projects that integrate both areas of learning.
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Symmetrical Art
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Combine painting with your symmetry unit. Have students take a piece of paper and fold it in half; then pen up the paper again and drop a dab of paint in the center of the sheet. Students should fold the paper in half along that same folded line and smooth out the paper so that the paint spreads out. Open the paper to find an exotic art piece as well as a symmetrical shape. Students can identify what object or shape they have created as well as where the line or lines of symmetry are. The lines of symmetry can be found by finding which sides are mirror images.
Fractional Underwater Scene
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Combine creating an underwater scene with your math unit on fractions. Hand out circle stencils to each child and have the students cut out as many circles as needed and cut them into even, fractional pieces. The fish will be created by using fractional pieces of the circle to create their bodies and gluing them on a piece of blue construction paper so that it looks like a water scene. Students must label each part of the circle used to create the fish; if eight equal pieces of the circle were used to create the fish, label each piece 1/8.
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Penguin Math
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Make a paper penguin while reviewing shapes. Give stencils to trace so that the students can cut out a black circle for the head, a white oval for the penguin's body, a small orange rhombus for the beak, two small, narrow black ovals for the wings, two small blue circles for the eyes and two small orange trapezoids for the feet. Explain that the rhombus needs to be folded in half so that the beak will be three-dimensional. Review the names of the shapes and show a model of the penguin that they are going to assemble. Encourage students to work as groups to use the proper terms for the shapes and to work together to assemble their penguins.
Banking
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Combine creating a bank with your math unit on money. Have students bring in a shoe box from home. Encourage them to use their creative minds to decorate the shoe box with objects representing money. Review terms that have to do with money such as dollar bills, coins, wallets and banks. Have students glue on pictures to decorate the box appropriately. Print out colored pictures of coins and give them out to students based on their behavior or as another reward. At the end of the week have students count up their money; the student who has the most money will win a prize.
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References
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