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Send Feedback

To save, right click the thumbnail and choose Save Image As....

Drag colors to blend.

Press Space to start anew.

Press Z to undo.

Try different colors and symmetries.

Sally forth, you weaver of wonder, sower of silken waves.

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The Spangler Effect - The Science of Bubbles Season 01 Episode 22

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You need:

1. white drawing sheet 15 by 15 cm

2. black fineliner

3. markers

I found this lesson on Artsonia. Start in a corner and draw ONE line, the longest line: curved, straight, zigzag, with angles etc. The line has to fill the whole sheet and you may not pick up your marker from the sheet! The line may not hit or cross itself. And, the most important: the line has to end at the point it started. So be sure you're back in the beginning in time!

When ready, draw with a pencil three or four geometric shapes on your sheet. Choose three colours marker per shape and colour them. Outline your shapes with the black fineliner.

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You need: white drawing sheet 15 by 15 cm black fineliner markers I found this lesson on Artsonia. Start in a corner and draw ONE line, the longest line: curved, straight, zigzag, with angles etc. The line has to fill the whole sheet and you may not pick up your marker from the sheet!

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Uploaded by Springdale Public Schools on 2016-01-20.

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A quick word of common sense caution before the details on making a DIY bouncy ball: Although experiments with Borax make great DIY for kids projects, "**Borax is not edible", so don't let you toddler chew on the ball.

Materials to Make a Bouncy Ball

*Note: The first time we did this experiment we followed Anne Marie Helmenstine's instructions on About.com here. We were disappointed that 1) clear glue did not make a translucent bouncy ball and 2) the ball wasn't that bouncy. So, we modified the experiment a few times until we got a Super Bouncy Ball. The ingredients listed below are from the original recipe, but we encourage you to try our version, which reduces the cornstarch to 1/2 tablespoon, adds the food coloring to the second cup instead of the first cup, and mixes the second cup's ingredients first before adding the borax solution from the first cup.

two cups

measuring spoons

a coffee stir stick (or something to stir the solutions)

2 tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon borax (find it in the laundry detergent section of your local store)

1 tablespoon glue

1 tablespoon corn starch

food coloring (optional)

plastic bag (for storing your ball)

How To Make A Bouncy Ball

Pour the glue, cornstarch, food coloring, and 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture from the first cup into the second cup. We got the best results when we mixed the glue, cornstarch, and food coloring first, and then poured in the borax mixture.

This is definitely an experiment we will be doing again. Do you have any favorite kids activities that involve experiments with household item? Here are a few DIY for kids experiments with Borax and other household items that the Quirky Mommas have tried:

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DIY FOR KIDS {MAKE A BOUNCY BALL} - Kids Activities

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A quick word of common sense caution before the details on making a DIY bouncy ball: Although experiments with Borax make great DIY for kids projects, "**Borax is not edible", so don't let you toddler chew on the ball.

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Surprise Ferocious Beings Paper Project • Craftwhack

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Folding Fish paper art project. Art for kids, easy art projects

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How to Make a Harmonica | Science Projects

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How To Draw 3D Hand - Easy Tutorial for 3D Image - Optical Illusion Trick on Paper

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Welcome to my blog: http://coloredtips.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IdunnGoddess Follow me on G+ : https://plus.google.com/+Coloredtips1/ Amazing how our eyes are able to see those things that never exist. For example, this picture of 3D hand - it is absolutely flat, but our brain makes it volumetric.

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STEAM powered Art Bot!

STEM activities for kids is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math but we propose the inclusion of "A" for Art to turn STEM into STEAM. By encouraging creative thinking and problem solving in your child you are helping prepare for your child's future success by developing their divergent thinking skills.

Combine drawing and engineering with your own DIY art drawing machine. This art project for kids is easy enough that even my preschoolers were able to create their own art bot (with a bit of adult help).

The best part of this project is you only need materials from the Dollar Store, no special motor or tools required!

There are many different ways to create an art bot, like this tutorial that uses a plastic cup or with legos to build a "drawbot" from Planet Smarty Pants (which would also be a great extension of the activity for the older child). However, once I saw this tutorial from the Keen on Library blog, I knew we had to try the pool noodle to create our own art bot.

We had previously cut up a noodle to use as an unconventional building material, so I knew that it cuts easily (for adults) and would be easier for a younger artist to decorate.

Read below for our we made our very own Art Bot!
Materials:
Battery-Operated Electric Toothbrush (We found ours at the dollar store)

Pool Noodle

Scissors or Knife (adult use)

Tape

Markers

White Paper
Optional Supplies:
Googley Eyes

Pipe cleaners

Pom Poms

Yarn
Tutorial
Step 1: Insert the battery in your toothbrush and turn it on to make sure it works. Cut the pool noodle slightly larger than the length of the toothbrush.

Step 2: Push the toothbrush through the center of the pool noodle. If you wish, use the optional supplies to decorate and design your pool noodle to give your art bot personality.

Step 3: Tape 3 markers along the bottom of the pool noodle with the marker tips pointing down.

Step 4: Turn on the toothbrush and let the art-bot go!
Art Bot Maker Tips:
- Use thin markers.

- Play around for the best position of the markers on the pool noodle. It takes some trial and error.

-Buy extra electric toothbrushes and batteries. While the toothbrush is a bargain price at the dollar store the batteries don't last all that long.

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DIY Art Bot: Easy Art Project for Kids - Handmade Kids Art

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STEAM powered Art Bot! STEM activities for kids is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math but we propose the inclusion of "A" for Art to turn STEM into STEAM. By encouraging creative thinking and problem solving in your child you are helping prepare for your child's future success by developing their divergent thinking skills.

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Introduction: Easy Flour Stress Ball

In this instructable I will describe the excessively simple way to make your own functional stress relieving device. (It is also great for juggling)

Note: The device is not restricted to be used as a stress ball only. You may also use it for amusement, to throw at things (such as burglars), as a christmas/birthday present, for practical jokes, as a keychain, to pretend it's fruit, to sell, to launch into space, to juggle or any other use you can think of.

Step 1: What You'll Need

Although the materials necessary for this project do seem difficult to find, you will be suprised to learn that they can be found in most households.

You will need the following:
-party balloons
-flour
-funnel
-scissors

Step 2: Stretch the Balloon

Using your mouth or a pump blow air into the balloon so that it inflates and stretches. Let the air out of the balloon.

Step 3: Fill It With Flour

Using your funnel fill the balloon with flour. Make sure to be holding the end of the balloon tightly to avoid a mess. Stop putting flour in the balloon when it reaches the neck. Don't fill the neck. Tie the into a knot to stop the flour from getting out of the balloon.

Step 4: Avoid a Disaster

Take another balloon (it may be of a different color, the final result will not be affected) and cut most of the neck of using scissors. Stretch the second balloon over the first one as a second layer. The second layer will help prevent the dispersion of flour all over the place in the event a hole would appear.

Step 5: Enjoy

You're finished!
You may now fully enjoy your fabulous flour stress ball in any way you could possibly imagine.
If you do not have an imagination, you will unfortunately be forced to use it solely as a stress ball.

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In this instructable I will describe the excessively simple way to make your own functional stress relieving device. (It is also great for juggling) Note: The device is not restricted to be used as a stress ball only.

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September is in full swing and we thought we'd celebrate by doing Back-to-School week! My oldest kiddo just started pre-school and Kate is now the mother to an official kindergartner. This week we're going to have *five* posts. Hear that? A post every single day of the week you lucky duckies. So make sure to check in! Kate is going to be sharing some great breakfast and school lunch foods (something we've gotten tons of requests for) and I'm going to do some really fun kitchen crafts/science projects that are great for entertaining young hands and minds. Which brings me to today's post.

Do you guys remember this??

I was so obsessed with that stuff and I totally remember the commercials. When I made this homemade version I couldn't believe that it had the exact same smell. Took me right back to 6th grade!

If you've ventured into science fun like this before then you already know that 97% of home projects require the same 2 ingredients. Elmer's glue and borax. In fact, I'm convinced if I combine them in enough different ways I'm sure to come up with then next earth-shattering invention like velcro, post-it notes or spray cheese.

Start by dissolving a teaspoon of Borax in one cup of water and set it aside.

Now pour the Elmer's glue in a separate bowl. You can use either clear glue or white glue for this. For this first batch I'm using clear.

Add some water to that glue

and then stir in some food coloring. I think green is quite fitting for slime, don't you?

Once that's all stirred up, just pour your Borax mix into the bowl. You will instantly see masses forming in there. Straight out of an alien movie I tell ya. Or a science book. I know there's some science-y explanation for the magical formation of slime, but I couldn't tell ya. Something about polymers...man I used to be really awesome at chemistry. Now I just make really awesome cookies. I think cookies are way more useful as an overall life skill.

See? Say it with me: ewwwww! You just want to use your hands at this point and just kind of stir and smoosh and try to get all of the solids.

It will be wet and soft at first but you just have to keep kneading it. The moisture will knead out or absorb (just toss the liquid left in the bowl) and soon you'll have a nice blob. Normally a finished product resulting in a "blob" is not a good thing, but this is an exception. Love your blob.

I have to say I actually prefer the white glue. I don't know why, it just seemed to have a nice texture (you know, because I'm such a connoisseur of slimy blobs). This time I enlisted my only favorite helpers. This is a fun project for kids, just supervise and make sure they're old enough to understand it's not something to eat.

Older kids can help measure and stir and younger ones can stand and protest that they don't get to. And then try to eat the science experiment. It's all about the family fun.

This is their favorite part. Both of my kids said in unison, "Ahhhhh!! There's something in there!"

This is a good picture of what you'll get when you first try to grab it. You might think you messed up because it's so loose. Just keep smooshing!

And soon it will look like this. Nice and smooth and dry to the touch.

It only takes minutes to make and your kids will think you're awesome. And it will totally keep them busy for at least 3.5 minutes. Hopefully even more if your kids have longer attention spans than mine do.

What kid doesn't like to squish slimy things?? Even *I* love playing with this stuff!

by sara wells

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September is in full swing and we thought we'd celebrate by doing Back-to-School week! My oldest kiddo just started pre-school and Kate is now the mother to an official kindergartner. This week we're going to have *five* posts. Hear that? A post every single day of the week you lucky duckies.

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Make beautiful bubble painting Hydrangea flowers! Fun DIY dish soap paint recipe. Great kids art activity & easy beginner watercolor ideas!
This may just be one of the easiest and most fun watercolor flower painting projects, because you don't even have to "paint"! Love blowing bubbles? Love to paint Hydrangea flowers? You will love today's bubble painting hydrangea flowers!

When I first stumbled upon an image of bubble paint hydrangeas on Discount School Supplies website, I just knew I HAVE to try it! I had so much fun and made the paintings in 2 ways because I don't want to stop!

Easy bubble paint recipe
IMPORTANT: use paint and dish soap that are labeled Non Toxic !
( Some of the helpful resources are affiliate links. Full disclosure here. )

You can buy bubble paint, but it's very easy to make your own! I tested a few mixes, and the one I am really happy with is 1 part (by volume) non toxic acrylic paint, 1 part non toxic dish soap, and 2-3 parts water depending on how thick the paint is. I used this cardstock, which held up great!

Step 1: mix bubble paint

Find a dish to mix the paint. Mine is about 6″x9″, and 2″ deep. Mix the bubble paint. Now let the fun begin!

Take a straw and blow some air into the bubble paint mixture. You will see bubbles forming on the surface.

When you get a clump of fat bubbles, take a piece of paper and gently press it onto the bubbles. The goal is to let the paper touch the bubbles, but not the mixed paint below.

You can repeat a couple of times to get the desired shapes and colors!

I used 2 colors here, one dish has rose pink, the other purple.

A shallow dish works well because the bubbles can come up easily, and when we press the paper onto the bubbles, the paper won't touch the rim of the dish and cause smudging.

Step 2: make bubble painting Hydrangea flowers

Now our Hydrangea flowers are starting to take shape! It's time to add some details.

For one of the paintings, I painted some watercolor leaves in various shades of green, cut them out and glued them around the blossoms.

I felt the leaves need to pop a bit more, so I used a pen and added some details, super easy though, just draw some lines! Now the painting looks a lot more finished. 🙂

In the other bubble painting variation, I first Painted some stems and leaves using watercolor.

I like using brushes with a nice pointed tip for watercolors, they are great for washes, and for finer details.

Again, use a pen and add some rich details with lines and dots.

My favorite art pens! I used #01 here.
Now a little gift / craft project- make your own sets flower greeting cards with these free printable cards!

Make your own sets flower greeting cards with free printable cards!
If you love the idea of painting with unconventional and fun techniques, here are a couple of tutorials you will enjoy -
Paint a Watercolor Fall tree in 10 minutes!

Paint easy watercolor flowers!

Paint a Galaxy in 30 minutes!

Hope you enjoyed today's little project! Happy creating! 🙂

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5 Minute Bubble Painting Hydrangea Flowers - A Piece Of Rainbow

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Make beautiful bubble painting Hydrangea flowers! Fun DIY dish soap paint recipe. Great kids art activity & easy beginner watercolor ideas! This may just be one of the easiest and most fun watercolor flower painting projects, because you don't even have to "paint"! Love blowing bubbles? Love to paint Hydrangea flowers?

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My fifth graders had a wonderful time making these optical illusions!

This is one of those "3 Ingredient Art" projects that require minimal supplies with great results! Here is what you need:
A Ruler
A Sharpie
2 colored markers
Colored Pencils

First start off by drawing 6 intersecting lines on your paper (with the ruler) to create the "spokes" on the paper. It is important that you keep your lines intersecting at the same exact middle point on the paper. I had some alligator tears from kids who kept "messing up". Sigh. I found that six lines fit nicely onto the paper.

Inside every other "pie piece" I had the kids draw four "smiley faces". Then I had them use one colored marker to color those pie pieces in (every other one) to make a white/color/white/color pattern. It is important to leave the other pie pieces BLANK! This only confuses the kids and trust me for your own sanity's sake, making this simple on them won't make you pull your hair out!!!

After we had that done, I had them fill in the blank spaces with "sad faces". This will create the crumpled effect on the final product. Have students choose a second color to color those new patterned pieces they just made. One time I had students choose the compliment to the first color. This time I had them choose whatever they liked. Of course they had more fun that way!

Lastly, use colored pencils to shade the edges of the white areas. This creates the 3-dimensional effect where it looks like the pieces are popping out or folding down. These projects look really impressive hanging on a bulletin board; and most adults can't figure out "how'd they DO that"?! But my students know that it's all about breaking artwork down into pieces to create that impressive final product. It's our little secret.

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to 3-D or not to 3-D? that is the question!

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My fifth graders had a wonderful time making these optical illusions! This is one of those "3 Ingredient Art" projects that require minimal supplies with great results! Here is what you need:A RulerA Sharpie2 colored markersColored Pencils First start off by drawing 6 intersecting lines on your paper (with the ruler) to create the "spokes" on the paper.

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What it can teach us about engineering

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Humans are natural-born structural engineers. If you find that hard to believe, watch a small child play with a set of simple wooden blocks. With no outside instruction -- and through lots of energetic trial and error -- he or she will eventually learn that the most stable way to build upward is to place a horizontal beam across two vertical columns.

The child's intuitive logic is the same that inspired the Mycenaean architects of the 13th century B.C.E. to construct the famous Lion Gate out of two stone columns and a slightly arched beam. It's the same structural savvy that told the ancient Egyptians that if you want to build something tall out of stone, you need to start wide at the base. And it's that same natural-born engineer in all of us that says, "Dude, if you want to win at Jenga, don't leave a single support at the bottom of the tower!"

Jenga is one of the most popular games in the world, third only to Monopoly and Scrabble in the number of units sold [source: Little]. The object of the game is simple: You start with a stack of 54 blocks -- three blocks across, 18 levels high. Each level of blocks should be perpendicular to the level below it. Each player must remove a block from near the bottom of the tower and place it on the top using only one hand at a time. Eventually the tower becomes dangerously unstable. If you're the one who finally knocks it over, you lose.

Jenga was invented by Leslie Scott, a British citizen born and raised in Kenya and Tanzania. (Jenga means "build" in Swahili.) Scott played the game with her family in Africa for years; she eventually left a job with Intel to launch Jenga at a 1983 toy fair, where it became an instant gaming phenomenon [source: Little].

Part of Jenga's charm is its simplicity; nothing but wooden blocks and gravity. But even this simple game can teach us a lot about the more complex world of structural engineering. Buildings, after all, are vulnerable to the same forces that can topple a Jenga tower -- forces like loads, tension, compression, torsion and more. An accidental bump of the game table is an excellent scale version of a catastrophic earthquake.

Let's start our exploration of the structural engineering of Jenga with a look at loads.

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5 Things Jenga Can Teach Us About Structural Engineering

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Humans are natural-born structural engineers. If you find that hard to believe, watch a small child play with a set of simple wooden blocks. With no outside instruction -- and through lots of energetic trial and error -- he or she will eventually learn that the most stable way to build upward is to place a horizontal beam across two vertical columns.

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A study of lines and shapes

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A change in curriculum structure:

You may have read about the way we structured our Art Survey course last year in my post about the Identity Sketchbook Cover. After looking at the pros and cons of this intense structure (1 Element of Art each week), I wanted to develop a less intense path. While I felt like my students really got to know the Elements really well last year, I just felt that it was a lot of work for both me and my students (which isn't a bad thing, necessarily). I also really wanted some more major pieces of art along the way (especially for the All-City Art Show, which we need to have artwork for by January). So, instead, we structured the curriculum to focus on a few Elements at a time, with the same idea of using the sketchbook for notes and exercises, and then applying those together into a piece of artwork.
So here is the morph: I love the scratchboard lesson I posted a while ago (one stolen from a plan on the incredible art site- that lesson seems to no longer be there) using cut out images of people/heroes/etc, and then morphing the body and background into art nouveau or art deco styles.

Then, as I was searching for some sub lesson ideas one day, I came across this "Bad Hair Day" idea... where you take your own drawn portrait and give yourself a new bad or crazy hairdo.

I also ran into ZENTANGLES! These are pretty awesome and along the same line (no pun intended).

The best of both worlds... PLUS a fun little reading to help teach our students the annotation expectations... BINGO BANGO! I'm a genius! (A thief, but also a genius!)

Line and Shape: Bad Hair Day

Again, Matt and I ended up in slightly different directions by the end of this piece, which was really exciting, actually!

Before working on this project, I gave the students a short little article about Bad Hair Days and how it affects us (even celebrities!). We went through the annotation expectations (our school wide initiative in regards to literacy) and then there were a few questions that the students had to answer on their own (and then share!). What was fun about this, besides getting to know my students a little better, was that it was a great way to segue into the project. "So, why do you think we are reading about Bad Hair Days?"

1. Find a good quality image of your hero or someone you look up to. (This project was done on 12" x 18" paper, so really the kids stuck to portraits and not so much full body.)

2. In sketchbook, students created 3 thumbnail sketches of the composition and type of hair style. In my case, the students could create EITHER a geometric hair style OR an organic hair style. Discussion on Compositional Techniques. Students had to have the thumbnails approved by me and I signed my initials by the one design they liked the best and were going to move forward with. Then I gave them a sheet of paper (or allowed them to take one from the table).

3. Precisely cut out the person using scissors with EXCELLENT CRAFTSMANSHIP (showed the students how to use scissors... sounds weird, but it's something you just have to do), EXCLUDING the person's hair. This can be tricky depending on the photo- sometimes the hair is draping across shoulders or what not. Also, 'tis the time to really talk about what craftsmanship means.

4. Glue the portrait to the paper using EXCELLENT craftsmanship.

5. Draw the outline of the hair using pencil.

7. Students trade in ID for a fine sharpie. They will use a thick line weight to outline the hairdo, and a medium line weight to outline the shapes inside.

8. Students trade in ID for an ultra fine sharpie and may then begin line designs inside the shapes- though the lines also need to be corresponding with geometric or organic. They can use different line weights if they want, but should use the ultra fine sharpie OR a pen works great, too!

9. The background should be broken into the OPPOSITE shapes (if hair is geometric, the background should be organic). Using medium line weight, outline in sharpie. (The only outline that is a thick line weight is the outline of the hair.

10. The background shapes should be filled in with corresponding lines types using a light line weight in ultra fine sharpie or pen.

If students had more time or wanted to embellish when finished, I suggested to them to use colors either in the background OR the hair. Often, it was easy to suggest unifying the hair to the portrait by using a color that was in the portrait. For example, if the portrait had a red shirt on, then maybe using red or warm colors in the hair will tie the piece together and draw emphasis to the portrait.

I also had the students write a short essay (based on prompts) about why they chose their particular hero and how a bad hair day would affect their hero.

*Please note: I didn't have time to crop and size all images properly. Forgive me? I think you get the idea...

Matt's students had the option of creating a background with the contrasting line designs, OR cutting out their portrait and hair and pasting it onto a contrasting background all together. I love the variation between ours and just gives us more ideas or options for future modification (time, skill levels, etc). Here are some examples of what his students did...

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A change in curriculum structure: You may have read about the way we structured our Art Survey course last year in my post about the Identity Sketchbook Cover. After looking at the pros and cons of this intense structure (1 Element of Art each week), I wanted to develop a less intense path.

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CHROMATOGRAPHY Easy Kids Science Experiments

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Hey guys! This post has been very popular...if you are interested in other leaf related projects, be sure to look at this Leaf Printing post and my Leaf Press Project. Thanks!

While second grade was completing that project, I was working with my third graders on these Leaf Reliefs. It's a very spring/summer kind of project, so I thought I'd share it with you.
I like that I can talk about all of the elements of art when looking at something as simple as a leaf: the shape of the leaf; the lines and texture of the veins; the varying colors of each leaf; the cylinder form of the tree that the leaf came from. And when we complete this project, we chat about the values we created and the positive and negative space of the leaf. I do a lot of what's called "call and response" in my classroom which is where I say something and the kids finish my phrase. For example, when I point out an "element of..." they all respond "aaahhrt". Because we are fancy artists that speak with funny accents. Whatever helps them to remember, right?
For this project, you'll need to gather the following:

matte board ... I used 3" X 4"

leaves, delicate flowers, lace ... really anything flat with some sort of texture

3M Spray Glue

inexpensive aluminum foil

the $1 a can matte black spray paint found at Home Depot ... seriously, you want the cheap stuff

0000 steel wool

canvas, matte board or even cardboard for the background

In the art room, I had the kids gather around a table, pick a piece of matte board and lay it in front of them. Then I would lightly spray the glue on the board. The kids then chose from a pile of leaves laying their leaves on the sticky board veiny side up. I then sprayed the board again, laid a piece of tin foil over the board shiny side up and sent the kids back to their seats. At their seat, they used their finger to rub the surface of the board and reveal the texture underneath.
Once that was complete, we took our boards, a large drop cloth and some cheapo spray paint outside. I attempted to let the kids spray paint but I ended up giving the boards a final coat to insure complete coverage. We let their boards dry until the following art class.

Using the softest of steel wool, the kids burnished their leaf reliefs. Some kids chose to burnish the boards completely while others liked the variety of values. And even though I emphasized not to rub too hard, we still had several incidences where the kids tore their foil. Usually they noticed right away and the foil could be gently glued back into place. In other cases, we repaired by using a black or silver sharpie to camouflage the tear.

For the background, I have tried a variety of things. In the classroom, we have used canvas boards that we've painted (after a long chat about color theory and mixing, of course) and applied a texture with our texture combs. Not familiar with texture combs? I picked mine up from an art supply catalog however they can easily be made by using either a plastic comb or cutting notches into cardboard.

Once paintings and reliefs were complete, I hot glued the metal work onto the canvas. I gave the kids the opportunity to either have their reliefs flat or popping up by adding a bit of stryofoam to the back of the relief.

The works of art were a real show stopper once hung in the hall as a group. What I loved so much about this project was that I was able to start the year with a solid introduction to the elements of art. Not only that but all children were successful which is a huge ego bust. In fact, my principal-at-the-time loved them so much, she stayed after school with me for a couple of days so I could teach the lesson to her! Her leaf reliefs are now proudly displayed in her home. Gotta love a project that inspires everyone!

Hopefully this will inspire you as well. Enjoy your weekend!

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Hey guys! This post has been very popular...if you are interested in other leaf related projects, be sure to look at this Leaf Printing post and my Leaf Press Project. Thanks! While second grade was completing that project, I was working with my third graders on these Leaf Reliefs.

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How To Make a DIY Lava Lamp With Alka-Seltzer

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Math art projects like this Pi Skyline are my favorite way to get my older son's creative juices flowing. It's also a great Pi Day activity! My little math nerd loves making tessellations, spirolaterals, drawing with a compass and other math tools. The idea of creating a cityscape out of graphing the numbers in pi was something we invented last year to celebrate Pi Day (March 14). We tried it again this past week and Kiddo was even more into it!

Kids don't need to be advanced mathematicians to participate in this math art project, and of course it is easily adaptable for kids of all ages. Kids can make graphed skylines with any series of numbers but it becomes much more fun as a way to celebrate Pi Day and you need a creative Pi Day project. ( Side note: once you and your kids have explored pi, be sure to move on to a Fibonacci art project!)

Pi, or π, is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. It is an irrational number, a little mystifying and a whole lot of fun to use in art.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

Pi Math Art
What you need:
How to make a Pi Skyline

Each building in the Pi cityscape represents a number in pi. Color in the number of squares on the graph paper that correspond to each digit of pi. Kiddo also decided to make a black dot to represent the decimal point. Kids can fill in columns of squares for as many digits as they wish. My son decided he would finish all the numbers on our two page printout. It took him two days, but he did it! ( I did not have so much patience.)

I worked alongside Kiddo on my own pi day skyline for a while. It helps focus him on an art project if I work next to him. I used watercolors to create a night sky and river and glued my cut out shadow city on to it. You can't tell much in the photo, but I like how the two rows of graph paper form the base of the city.

Plus don't forget the pi stars for a little "pi in the sky"!

Watch the video!

Note: I've gotten some queries about the art supplies in the video. Here's a list. (Affiliate links.)

If you look closely you can see the stars are actually π. π in the sky, my friends.

Pi Math Art variations

There are so many ways you could adapt this. Glue squares of paper to create a collage cityscape of pi, or use paints, watercolors, or even sculpt it. You could even use LEGO to build a 3D version! I think buildings made with different colored squares corresponding to pi would be awesome!

Other Pi Day Ideas

Make a paper chain or beaded necklace in which each color in the chain represents a number.

Have a contest to see who can memorize the most numbers in pi. We did this last year and Kiddo beat me handily.

See our full list of pi day activities.

Show your kids these awesome color visualizations of π data.

How are you celebrating Pi Day?

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Math art projects like this Pi Skyline are my favorite way to get my older son's creative juices flowing. It's also a great Pi Day activity! My little math nerd loves making tessellations, spirolaterals, drawing with a compass and other math tools.

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How to draw - the Fibonacci sequence / golden spiral  - step by step tutorial (english)

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Create Your Own Comic Strips Online with MakeBeliefsComix

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Create Your Own Comic Strips Online with MakeBeliefsComix

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EXHIBIT YOUR COMIX AND JOURNALING ART IN OUR GALLERY!

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The most realistic painting experience ever built on your iPad. Paint in 3d. Rotate your iPad a round to see light changes in realtime. Paint on Paper, Wood or Canvas. Use one of the 5 brush styles: Spray cans, Watercolors, Paint Brushes, Pencils, Paint Guns. It's like holding the real thing.

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ABCya! • ABCya! Paint - Digital Painting Skills

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In ABCya Paint, kids can explore their creativity using paintbrushes, stickers, typing, and coloring pages to draw, paint, or create images. The images can be saved or printed. Use this game as a tool to help kids practice using colors and shapes to produce imaginative and creative narratives.

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Making straw rockets is a great playdate activity. We also make straw rockets a lot on rainy afternoons. They are so easy to set up, make, and clean up, they've become one of my favorite suggestions to the kids.

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Print out our free rocket printable and have fun making some straw rockets! The kids loved designing their own rockets and then launching them using straws- such a great way for kids to explore science!
This post contains affiliate links.
This post was originally published on June 14, 2015 and has since been updated.
Here's an easy way to make straw rockets using just a few materials. This project makes a great addition to a unit on physics, space, the night sky, or things that fly and is also just fun to do on a rainy day!

A reader, Lisa, suggested a great children's book to go with this activity: The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield. Be sure to check it out!

The kids and I designed our own rockets and launched them using straws! This activity was definitely a hit with both Lucy (age 7) and Theo (age 3 1/2).

The kids loved seeing how far they could get their straw rockets to go and had fun trying them out at all different angles.

This activity makes a great science exploration and is perfect for the classroom. Kids can compare how different angles of the straw affect the distance the rocket travels or how adding fins or folding the rocket in different ways can affect its flight.

See the straw rockets in action!

Materials for Making Straw Rockets

Directions for Making Straw Rockets

1. Print out the free rocket template. Color the rockets and cut them out.

2. Cut the bottom off a plastic pipette and attach it to the back of a rocket using tape or glue dots. (We love having a stash of plastic pipettes at home. They're so fun to use with painting and often come in handy for various science activities- like with our color arrays. And they're super inexpensive!)

If you don't have any plastic pipettes handy, you can use a straw instead. (Just make sure this straw is wider than the other straw you'll be using for launching.) Cut the straw to fit the length of the rocket and tape one end shut so it's completely sealed. Attach it to your rocket with glue dots or tape.

3. Slip a straw into your pipette, and you're ready to launch!

4. Give your straw a big puff of air, and watch it take off!

Extending the Straw Rockets Science Activity

How does the angle you launch your rocket affect the distance it travels? Try out different angles and record the results.

Can you design your own rockets to attach to the pipette or straw? Which designs work better?

Try adding another fin to your rocket with tape. How does it affect the flight of your rocket?

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STEM for Kids: Straw Rockets (with Free Rocket Template) - Buggy and Buddy

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Print out our free rocket printable and have fun making some straw rockets! The kids loved designing their own rockets and then launching them using straws- such a great way for kids to explore science! This post contains affiliate links. This post was originally published on June 14, 2015 and has since been updated.

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Ways to make throwing stars from popsicle sticks.

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Ways to make throwing stars from popsicle sticks.