Math Concepts: Collaborative Art

During these first months of school, we have used the color red in our Practical Life shelves as a cross- curricular connection to the Montessori math material called the Short Bead Stair.  The number one is represented by the color red.  We thought we would invite the children to create a collaborative art project with the red, number one theme using a method inspired by a lesson found at Fairy Dust Teaching.  The project took a few days to complete and we plan to make one for each of the corresponding colors of the Short Bead Stair throughout the school year.

The first day, children used three shades of red to cover the canvas.

We encouraged them to have the colors touch each other and overlap.  

The next day, we added red gems, beads, and paper cuttings which had been saved from our Practical Life paper cutting activity.  The children filled a cup with these items, mixed glue and red paint, and poured it over the canvas.  What fun!

After the glue dried, we could see such interesting texture and color formations.

The last day, we added glitter with regular glue.  I am not a huge glitter fan, but must admit that this added a great quality to the project.

Number One:  Short Bead Stair