Today was a great day of doing math art with six classes of students. The grade 2’s and 3’s all did “half and half” quilt squares out of two colours of construction paper.
I had squares cut ahead of time (these were 3 inches by 3 inches). Each child picked two squares in two colours. Then they cut “freehand” each of their 4 squares on the diagonal, and they did a great job of it. I had explained that they would start at one corner and “aim” the blade of the scissors toward the opposite corner, and they were able to do that successfully. Then they put the 8 right triangles back together into one large “quilt” square (in the design of their choice), which was glued onto a larger square of black construction paper (9 inches by 9 inches).
I put all the quilt squares up in the hall before leaving the school today and they look delightful! It was a fun, quick project tying together geometry, easy fractions, and art.
Mathematically yours,
Carollee
