Color, an essential component of most works of art, adds expression and interest to art. Certain math concepts can help teach color to your students by encouraging them to create art pieces that rely on a variety of different colors and color combinations. Provide a variety of colored shapes and encourage students to create and glue repeating patterns to blank sheets of paper. Teach students about primary and secondary colors as well as coordinating and contrasting colors. Have students lay a colored tissue paper shape on top of a shape of a different color, such as red over yellow to make orange, to make repeating patterns in new colors. The overlays will help teach color mixing and what colors combine to make new colors.
Lines are a key component of most works of art; in fact, the grid is the base of all works of art, including print pieces and architecture. Use graphs to teach students about lines and how they can represent a wide range of ideas. Provide blank bar graphs to students and have them graph different types of cars in the school parking lot or the colors in a bag of candy. Provide large graph paper and encourage your students to create a work of art by drawing a picture in each square, which reinforces the concept of line in art by requiring the students to create repeating patterns and to draw within certain confines.
The illusion of space is an art concept that allows students to create dimensional pieces of art, and geometric shapes can help teach this concept. Provide students with squares, circles, rectangles and triangles in a variety of colors and sizes. Have students glue smaller shapes at the top of their paper and larger shapes at the bottom. Ask your students to draw details around the shapes to create a piece of artwork. Show students how the smaller shapes give the illusion of space by appearing to be farther away than the shapes at the bottom of the paper. Point out that shapes can be different sizes, but that they can also remain the same shape. Integrate a review of shapes and angles as your students create their pictures to help them relate the concept of space to geometry.
Free art, or art that students make up and create on their own, can also help build creativity and blend together art and math. Provide students with addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problems and ask them to use a variety of art supplies to illustrate the problem and the answer. Provide craft sticks and glue and have students create structures to reinforce geometry concepts. Use tissue paper squares to make mosaics or paper shapes to make collages or pictures.