Many of your third-graders are probably visual learners, which means they comprehend and retain the material being presented more easily if they can see it. When you introduce art projects into your math instruction, your visual learners are more likely to understand what you are teaching. Art concepts can provide a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Allow your third-graders to do art projects as part of your math curriculum, and you will likely notice increased enthusiasm for math class as well.
Invite your students to create angle collages. Ask them to cut pictures out of magazines that have a variety of different angles, such as a door for a 90-degree angle. Have your third-graders glue each picture to a large piece of paper. Encourage your students to find at least five different angles to include in their collage. Allow time at the end of the activity for each student to share his collage and point out the angles that he found.
Ask your third-graders to draw several small pictures on a large piece of paper. Encourage them to draw as many pictures that include angles as they can. Have each student scatter pictures that do not have angles, such as a whole pizza or a beach ball, among the pictures with angles. The point is to have as many pictures on the piece of paper as possible. When all of your third-graders have finished, ask them to switch papers. Ask your students to circle the angles they are able to find in the picture. Have them color-code the angles, such as blue for a 90-degree angle and green for a 45-degree angle, to further enforce the concept of angles.
Give each of your third-graders a piece of graph paper, and ask them to design an amusement park using as many angles as possible. Encourage them to include angles in their ride, snack bar and building designs. To further challenge your third-graders, give them a list of certain angles you will be looking for in their amusement park. Once your students have designed their amusement parks, provide construction paper, cardboard boxes, toilet paper tubes and other supplies, and have them build their park based on their design. Remind your third-graders to include the required angles in their three-dimensional representations.