This is a collection of our our favorite math art projects and the best thing about them is that they will get math kids thinking about art and art kids thinking about math!

Turn number sequences into art

• We did this when we turned pi into a cityscape
• Spirolaterals will help your kids practice their multiplication tables.
• Create Fibonacci art with circles.
• This Fibonacci valentine from Math Four could be adapted for any time of the year.

What do your kids prefer, math or art? Do you ever do math art projects with the kids? 

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Symmetry Art Project Tutorial

This symmetry art project is easy and uses just a few common art supplies. For a more complex math art project, try this rotational symmetry math art activity.

Materials

• Paper (we used large sheets of white finger paint paper, but any plain paper is fine).
• Painting medium of your choice. We used glitter glue, our favorite dot makers (from a previous dot art project) and regular tempera paint.

Instructions

Fold the paper in half to make a crease, then open it back up and lay it flat on the table.

Paint, squirt or smash to your heart's content on one side of the paper.

Before the paint is dry, fold the clean side over the painted side and press hard, smoothing the paper.

Voilà! Now you have a lovely piece of art in which the left and right sides are mirror images of each other.

In the photo above left the art was created using a brush and blue tempera paint. On the right, the medium was glitter glue. My kid heaped mounds and mounds of glitter glue on one side of the paper before smoothing it out. Boy, he loves that glitter glue.

Next, he combined dot painters and glitter glue. In the above example, you can see the symmetrical lines of dots criss-crossing the page.

My little artist loved discovering how symmetry worked! I think he felt rather powerful having a controlled system to create an image.

It's impossible for me to let you leave without a couple of great book recommendations that use symmetry! (affiliate links below - purchases made through affiliate links may earn commission)

Round Trip by Ann Jonas is a fascinating look at reflection and symmetry. The book is meant to be read forwards, then turned around and read upside down. Your kids won't be able to stop studying this fascinating math picture book, examining how the mirrored images created two stories.

Seeing Symmetry by Loreen Leedy is a lovely look at the symmetry all around us, from animals and words, patterns on fabrics, and more. Kids are introduced to the concepts of horizontal, vertical and even rotational symmetry. End notes explain the concept further, as well as give activity suggestions.

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Drawing cat tessellations is a relaxing activity and a fun way to show kids how math and art intersect. Tessellations help kids explore shape, pattern, form and geometry, which are important concepts for both disciplines.

We'll show you how to make an easy cat tessellation pattern step by step. This is a great math art activity for the classroom or after school enrichment and is appropriate for students of all ages and skill levels. Once kids understand the basic way to make a simple shape to tessellate they may even start creating all sorts of animal tessellations!

What Is a Tessellation?

In simple terms, tessellations are repeating patterns of one or more shapes on a 2D plane in which geometric shapes, called "tiles," are nestled against each other in such a way as there are no gaps or breaks. The tessellation patterns may or may not include rotations.

Think of a jigsaw puzzle, but in which all of the pieces are identical in size and shape. Or the tile on your bathroom floor or kitchen backsplash. A quilt often contains tessellating patterns.

Artist M.C. Escher is the biggest name in tessellating art. No doubt you've seen his famous works, but this cat math art project is much more appropriate for beginners!

How to Make Cat Tessellations

A cat is an easy animal tessellation and this pattern is very simple as we will be using only one shape. Making the cat shape that becomes the base of a repeating pattern is very easy to learn. The principal is the same as we showed you in our first post on the art of tessellation, but we'll go over the basics again, here.

Supplies needed:

• Paper squares
• Plain paper
• Scissors
• Pencil or pen
• Tape
• Colored pencils, markers or crayons (optional)

Step by Step Instructions

For beginners, it is best to start with a square piece of paper to create the cat face pattern. Using your pen or pencil, draw the top of the head and cat ears.

Try to draw the ears so they do not reach the top of the paper. As you'll see in the next steps, it's because you'll only have one piece to tape rather than multiple pieces.

Next, cut along the outline, being careful not to cut all the way to the top edge, that way you end up with only two parts.

Move the top piece to the base of the larger part without flipping or rotating.

Tape pieces together being careful to align the edges as neatly as possible. Younger children may need the steady hand of an adult. If the edges aren't aligned, the pattern will not tessellate properly.

MORE: 21 Math Art Projects for Kids

Now the really fun part begins!

Trace the outline of the cat pattern on a large piece of paper. Once you have a tracing, move the pattern next to the first outline so that they are nestled next to each other and trace again.

Continue to repeat this step until the paper is filled with cats. Then, draw in their cute features, giving each feline a different personality!

Technically, using colored pencils to enhance your kitty cats is optional. But, no doubt, you won't be able to resist.

See how adorable they are! I can hear them purring.

MORE: Math Art Books for Kids

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When we did this activity, I wrote out the instructions. However, if you are doing this project with preschoolers or early elementary students who aren't yet reading fluently, it's not necessary.

Instructions

Place 6 noodles in each muffin cup.

Child should arrange six noodles on the paper in a design of their choice. The only requirement is that each noodle must touch at least one other noodle.

Glue the noodles into place.

Draw an outline around design. This is where you can encourage a little experimentation. There are two choices. They can outline as close to the pasta as possible, or they can draw an outline closely resembling a known shape. For example, if the noodles are arranged as in the spikes of a wheel, they would outline the noodles with a circle.

Repeat with each group of 6 noodles, making different designs, and outlining the resulting shape.

MORE: Shape Activities for Preschool

Pasta Craft Variations

An obvious extension activity would be to vary the number of noodles. Try working with fewer or more pieces of pasta and compare the resulting shapes to the original. How does the art change when you have 3 noodles. What about 10 noodles?

Next, you can make the activity more advanced by choosing a predetermined shape, challenge your child to make as many different versions of that shape as they can, but with the same number of noodles. For example if the shape is a triangle, how many different triangles can you make with just six noodles each?

Try out different materials. Instead of pasta try toothpicks, straws (whole or cut into shorter lengths), flat marbles or pipe cleaners.

More easy math activities for kids:

• (Almost) Effortless math activities for preschoolers
• Shape sorting activity: 2D to 3D

Post first published in 2009, updated 2022.

I adapted this activity from the book Games for Math (affiliate link).

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This Christmas math art project is a great STEAM activity for kids to do at home, but also in the classroom, where kids working together can construct a huge fractal tree.

For the uninitiated... a Sierpinski triangle is a mathematically generated pattern in which self-similar shapes are repeated across different scales in a never-ending feedback loop. In layman's terms, the same shape is repeated in different sizes to infinity.

The fractal is named after Wacław Sierpińsk, a Polish mathematician, who made contributions to set theory and number theory. You can read more about the math involved in the Sierpinski triangle here.

You can see my Sierpinski triangle drawing project in my book, STEAM Kids Christmas, and now I am going to encourage you to take that drawing and turn it into a 3D fractal triangle!

Here's a peek at the 2D Sierpinski Christmas tree:

Find out how to make the fractal tree drawing in STEAM Kids Christmas.

Okay, on to 3D fractal math art awesomeness.

First watch the video to experience the magic, or scroll down for written instructions and the photo how-to.

Note: although we did this project as a Christmas tree, you can do it any time of year without a holiday theme.

How to Make a 3-Dimensional Sierpinski Tree

Tuck in the flaps and tape edges.

Make the basic tree by taping together 4 tetrahedrons to make one large tetrahedron. Three tetrahedrons are the base and one tetrahedron sits on top, as shown in the photograph below.

Make four of these basic trees.

Tape the 4 basic trees into a large tetrahedron. Again, three basic trees will form the base, with one basic tree settled on top. This large tetrahedron will be composed of 16 of the original tetrahedrons.

Congratulations. You just made your first Sierpinski fractal!

Make as many of these large tetrahedrons as you wish in order to keep scaling up your fractal design. Follow the rule that you'll need four of each size to scale up.

If you are doing this as a holiday project you can top off the fractal tree with a star. TIP: in STEAM Kids Christmas I included instructions for making a fractal star, also known as a "Koch snowflake"! See below for a sneak peek of the math art snowflake!

Don't forget to do more awesome STEAM projects, including beautiful math art projects and designs throughout the year. My team has an amazing resource I know you will love.

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As I did with our heart tessellations project, I'll share multiple ways to tessellate with a single 6 pointed star shape. Plus: these star tessellation ideas are surprisingly adaptable as holiday math art projects! Check out the final photos for holiday ideas.

Don't miss our newest math art idea: adorable cat tessellations!

Read on for the full instructions to learn how to make a perfect six pointed star for star and hexagon or star and diamond tessellation drawings.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links that earn commission from qualifying purchases.)

How to Make a 6 Pointed Star

Since the first thing you need is a 6 pointed star, let's start with that shall we?

Gather your materials:

• Paper. I recommend a heavy paper that is still easy to cut with precision.
• Compass, like this one
• Pencil
• Ruler or other straight edge
• Eraser (always handy)

Instructions:

1. Draw a circle. Using your compass, draw a circle of any size you wish.

2. Mark the perimeter. Without changing the width of your compass, place the sharp end of the compass at any point on the circle. As if you are going to draw another circle, mark with a slash the point where the new circle would intersect the existing one.

3. Mark 6 points on the perimeter. Continuing around the circle, move the sharp end of the compass to point where the slash meets the circle and repeat step 2 until you have a total of 6 slashes.

4. Form the triangles. Using your ruler, connect every other point on the circle. This will create two overlapping equilateral triangles.

5. Cut out your star. Carefully cut out your new 6 pointed star. Because this shape will form the basis of your tessellating stars you want to be as precise and careful as possible.

Now you are ready to tessellate! Watch the video to see how it is done, or follow the written instructions directly below it!

How to Make Star Tessellations

What you need:

• 6-point star cut out
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Paper. For art journaling, this is my go-to journal. I have filled up so many of them!
• A variety of art supplies (see below)

Here are some of my favorite art supplies I used to make the tessellations in the video and photos you see:

• Pan watercolors
• Pitt Artist pens
• Sharpies
• Sakura fine points
• Colored pencils

Don't want to hide your and your child's gorgeous math art in an art journal. Here are some ideas:

• Frame it!
• Create gorgeous handmade wrapping paper
• Create greeting cards for friends and family
• Turn it into holiday decorations. With just the right colors, tessellating stars are fit for almost any holiday including Christmas and Hanukkah. (see below)

More great math art here:

• Sierpinski fractal pyramid–makes a fun twist on the Christmas tree, too!
• How to draw spirolaterals–and practice multiplication at the same time!
• Make a pi city skyline–celebrate irrational numbers!

Want more STEAM projects? Check out my book!

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The list of Valentine math projects includes a variety of ideas. Most are perfect for elementary aged kids, 5 and up although you will also find one or two that preschoolers will also love. And since the projects combine several of the STEAM subjects (math, art/design, and sometimes engineering) the ideas earn extra love! Some of them will decorate your home or classroom and others are perfect for turning into math valentine cards! Best of all, none of these Valentine's day math art ideas use boring worksheets!

Heart tessellations  can be done for fun, or use the instructions as a classroom or after school Valentine's Day math art project. turned into Valentine cards. I admit to being a tessellations nerd and valentine math art is full of love (ha ha ha).

You kids can put their problem solving skills to the test when they attempt to arrange 22 triangles into this heart geometry puzzle. Turn this into a valentine by slipping the pieces into a red envelope and adding a few cupid-inspired words. The triangles can be used to form other valentine shaped math art as well.

Make origami heart bookmarks to show your love of reading and math art at the same time! When you think of origami, you may think of paper crafts instead of math, but math skills are essential. I share two heart bookmark folding methods. I made two videos for those of you who prefer to watch instead of read instructions. I ask you, what book loving friend wouldn't love to receive one on Valentine's Day?

Amaze your friends and family when you demonstrate that "love wins" as you use the magic of topology to turn two Möbius strips into interlocking hearts. Seriously, this clever Valentine's Day math art idea has a big WOW factor!

Science Friday shows you how to make some really cool mathy valentines with hearts. They give you mathematical instructions for graphing heart dilations, heart translations, reflections and rotations! The post has further resources for teachers on how to use the Valentine's Day math projects to adhere to common core standards, a pdf heart-making instruction sheets and links to some other super groovy math art projects. Definitely something to check out!

Babble Dabble Do has a printable for kids to make three dimensional paper hearts. This Valentine's Day project will teach symmetry and think how amazing a room decorated with a bunch of 3D hanging hearts would look!

Similar to our parabolic curve art, Almost Unschoolers shows you how to adapt the idea into a heart string art project that works number skills.

A heart geoboard pattern from Little Bins for Little Hands. I love this idea because geoboards are an excellent tool for working fine motor skills and although kids can make predetermined patterns, like the Valentine heart shown here, free exploration is encouraged. Children will learn about geometry, shapes, patterning and symmetry.

Speaking of geometry, a heart tangram challenge adds a little Valentine love into working with geometry, puzzles and patterns. Tangrams are centuries old dissection puzzles that came out of China. Once you printout the tangram pieces, or acquire a set of wood puzzle pieces (affiliate link), the math art possibilities are endless.

Have you ever heart of Pascal's triangle? It's a fascinating number pattern. Why not give it a Valentine theme with this Pascal's triangle project from Teach Beside Me.

Got advanced mathematicians in the family? Spend Valentines' Day graphing these heart curves.

If your kids are really drawn to traditional arts and crafts projects, these Valentine's Day math art ideas are just the ticket. Get out the paints and construction paper and teach them about symmetry using hearts with this activity for younger kids, or this project for older kids.

There you have it, twelve ways to turn a holiday about LOVE into a holiday celebrating MATH!

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My kids love brain teasers and figuring out how to fit triangles together to form a heart shape has just the right amount of challenge for inexperienced puzzle-putter-togethers, while still being a satisfying accomplishment for puzzle masters. Plus, who doesn't love a geometry activity or a math art project?

I like it because it may take a moment to figure out the trick, but once you see the pattern, completing the heart is a breeze.

The puzzle consists of twenty-two equilateral triangles. You can use our printable or, for an extra challenge, older kids can use a protractor to draw their own template.

Heart Geometry Puzzle How-To

Solve the geometry puzzle by arranging the pieces into a heart shape! (see the end of this post for a graph of the solution if you need help.

Geometry puzzle solution: 

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Made famous in popular culture by M.C. Esher, tessellations are repeated patterns in which shapes fit exactly together.  Esher's tessellating patterns are composed of fantastical shapes. Floor tiles or brick patterns are examples of commonly found tessellations. Honeycomb is a good example of a tessellation found in nature. All kinds or tessellations, like our cat tessellations or star tessellations are examples of the way mathematics makes the world fancy!

So for the love of math art, try this heart tessellations art project with your kids! 

Tessellation Video

We've made tessellations before, and if you want to get a feel for what the process is like, you can watch our video:

How to Make Heart Tessellations with a Template

What you need:

• Pencil
• Scissors.
• Protractor (optional)
• Thin cardboard (such as a cereal box)
• Art paper, or art journal
• Art supplies such as colored pencils, markers, etc.

Instructions:

Step 1. Create the heart template. This took a bit of experimentation on our part to find the right angle for the bottom point of the heart. We finally decided on an 80 degree angle, which we drew with our protractor. Be sure that the measurement of side of the heart is twice as long as one of the top "sides" or your tessellations will be off. Our measurements were approximately 6 cm and 3 cm.

Cut out the template on thin cardboard and trace a couple of practice tessellations to make sure your template is accurate. Trim template as needed.

(Somehow I forgot to take a photo of tracing the template. Sorry 'bout that (but you can see it in action in the video above.)

If you are creating the template in a classroom, this is a good place to discuss how to create a perfectly symmetrical heart and how exact measurements are necessary to make perfect tessellations. Creating the template by hand and not a computer means it can be challenging to make a perfect angular heart.

But perfection is not necessary! The slight imperfection of the template and the resulting traced tessellations are a good lesson in how mathematics works in real life.

Step 2. Trace your heart template on paper and tessellate!

Step 3. Color as desired.

Heart Tessellations on Graph Paper

In contrast to the above heart template method, these tessellations will be mathematically perfect. Children can even create them using a computer if you have an appropriate program. However, drawing the heart math art out on paper is also very satisfying.

What you need:

• Graph paper
• Pencil
• Art supplies such as colored pencils, markers, etc.

Instructions:

Step 1. Draw the outline of the heart tessellation as shown and fill the paper.

Step 2. Color as desired.

Step 3. Admire your handiwork.

Heart and Square Tessellations

I really wanted to make tessellations that more closely resembled a traditional heart shape than the designs above. So with some experimentation this heart and square design emerged.

What you need:

• Graph paper
• Scissors
• Art paper
• Pencil
• Watercolors or other coloring medium.

Instructions:

Step 1. Create a template using the graph paper and cut out. Trace template onto thin cardboard as in the first example, if desired.

Step 2. Tessellate hearts as shown. Notice that as you match the sides of the hearts, a square "hole" forms between the hearts.

Step 3. Color as desired!

Step 4. Admire your beautiful math artwork!

There you have it! Heart tessellations three different ways! Even though I encourage you to try this mathematical wonder any time of the year, this math art idea makes a great STEAM project for Valentine's Day.

Know what also makes for great Valentine STEAM inspiration? The STEAM Kids book I co-authored! Chock full of other super duper fun love and heart themed STEAM projects for kids ages 4-10. Learn more about it here: STEAM Kids Valentine's Day ebook.

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As you will see the results of experimenting with rotational symmetry combines grooviness and exactness (such a good combo, wouldn't you say?). Little mathematicians and young artists will learn about geometry and how symmetry creates patterns. Depending on your child's age, you can decide how much you want to explain about radial symmetry and orientation concepts. I have always had to learn about math and geometry alongside my child because the last time I had a math class was in high school! But I think that is proof that you don't have to be fluent in mathematical principles to enjoy the gorgeous results of combining math and art.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links.)

Before we go any further, I'd like to tell you that this rotational symmetry art activity is from my ebook, STEAM Kids. My co-authors and I have collected 52 projects to inspire your kids to tinker, invent, create and play. Go here to learn more about STEAM Kids.

Ok, on to the art. Let's get ready to rumble rotate!

What you need:

• Paper. We created our rotational symmetry art in our art journals. I've mentioned before how we absolutely LOVE our mixed media paper journals. Seriously. The. Best.
• Pencil
• Art supplies as desired. We loved using watercolors (this is the best set for kids), markers, and colored pencils.
• Push pin
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Enthusiastic children

1. Gather supplies.

2. Draw a shape on the cardboard. It can be regular or irregular.

3. Cut out shape.

4. Place extra piece of cardboard under your paper.

5. Place cardboard shape on top of paper.

6. Using the push pin, tack the cardboard shape to the paper. The cardboard under your paper will protect your work surface and help to secure the shape during the rotation.

7. Trace the shape.

8. Turn your shape a quarter turn. Trace the shape again.

9. Repeat quarter turn rotation until you have traced the shape four times in total.

10. Remove push pin and cardboard.

11. Decorate as desired.

You can see that the variations are endless!

One thing to keep in mind as you are doing this project is that the object kids create will have rotational symmetry - meaning that it will have the same shape after a certain degree turn. But because we are not using compasses and rulers and are generally being free-handed in our drawings, these shapes are not exact examples of objects with rotational symmetry. 

You can explain that a circle has infinite rotational symmetry but that a shape created by tracing and rotating a shape four times as this project demonstrates will have only 4th degree rotational symmetry. As the object makes one full turn, it will be an exact replica of itself four times. Have the kids try it and see how exact their shapes are! It's all a learning process and the degree (pun!) to which you want to delve into mathematical concepts is up to you. 

Watch the video!

We absolutely adore math art projects as a great tool in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art/design, math) education. You will find 52 amazing STEAM projects, including math art, creative science ideas, captivating engineering projects and more in STEAM Kids!

More math art projects:

Symmetry project

Symmetry paper trick (brain teaser!)

Tessellations art project

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