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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Read more about how we repurpose games for toddlers and preschoolers!

For example, if he rolled a 5 and a 3, we counted the dots and said "5 plus 3 equals 8". Then he could shut tiles 5 and 3 or tile 8. (If this were the actual game, he could shut any combination of numbers that equaled 8). If he rolled a combination of numbers that were no longer visible on the available tiles, instead of ending the game as in the original rules, he rolled again until he got numbers that worked.

Math Skills Practiced

Even without the competitive aspect of game play, repurposing Double Shutter for a young audience helps them practice valuable skills needed for future math success. Add it to your list of playful after school math activities.

My 5-year-old really enjoyed playing the math game and we took plenty of time to count, find the numbers and talk about which tiles to shut. Working side by side with a parent or other caring adult creates a bonding experience that means the practiced math skills are more likely to skick!

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MORE: Fun Handwriting Activities and Games

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Although parents may not want to play Go Fish on repeat the way kids do, it's a good idea to indulge their request for the card game as often as possible because there are actually a lot of hidden benefits to playing Go Fish!

But first, let's get a handle on what the game is, because Go Fish is one of the 10 card games kids should know!

How to Play Go Fish

For the 6 people left in the world who don't know how to play Go Fish, the instructions are very easy. Although many companies like to sell fancy Go Fish specific card decks, all you need is a standard deck of 52 cards.

Number of players

2-5 players

Objective

To collect as many sets of 4 of a kind as you can. In some variations, players only collect pairs.

Set-Up and Deal

Decide who goes first and who will deal. You can draw cards, play rock, paper, scissors, choose the youngest player, or shout "Not It!." The choice is yours.

The dealer deals 7 cards to each player. If playing with 4 or 5 players, deal out 5 cards to each player.

Place the remaining cards in a pile, face down. This is the "Go Fish" pile.

Play

Players examine their hands and decide what cards they might want to "fish" for. The first player, "the fisher," asks any other player if they have a particular number or face card. For example, "Do you have any 5s?" The fisher must already have at least one 5 in their hand.

If the "fishee" has a 5 they must hand over the card or cards to the fisher. If not, they gleefully say, "Go fish!" and the fisher draws one card from the Go Fish pile.

If the fisher gets one or more cards they asked for, whether from the fishee or the draw pile, they get another go and can ask the same player or another player for a card. They get to keep fishing as long as they continue to be given or draw the correct card. If they do not get the correct card, their turn is over and play continues clockwise.

Once a player as a set of four cards, they lay them down face up.

Play continues in this manner until all thirteen face value cards have been collected by players in sets of four.

The winner is the player with the most sets.

Benefits of Go Fish!

Perhaps one of the reasons kids love Go Fish! so much is because deep down they know that it's teaching them valuable skills and prepping their brains for the long schooling years in front of them!

Okay, maybe not, but it's still great for for early math learning and social skills.

Go Fish! teaches:

• recognition of numerals and quantities
• matching pairs and sorting
• listening and memory skills (Last time Mommy had a 5, but I didn't. Now I do have a 5. "Mommy, do you have a 5?"),
• learning how to take turns

... and, of course, Go Fish is a good starter game for parents who are helping kids who hate to lose learn how to be a good sport (we have more helpful sportsmanship tips here).

So what are you waiting for? Go Fish!

For slightly older kids who are practicing early addition skills, don't forget about TENS GO FISH!

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In addition, if your kids start throwing pom poms arounds (as they inevitably will), you don't have to worry about them breaking anything or hurting your feet when you step on them barefoot!

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We have a gigantic one pound bag of pom poms but even a smaller bag of pom poms like this one will get you started.  

This week my youngest son was playing with the pom poms again so I thought in addition to showing you his most recent pom pom play I'd do a round up of other ideas he's come up with.

1. He likes to sort pom poms by size in nice straight lines.

2. He also likes to pick pom poms up with chopsticks. This is one of the best activities for developing fine motor skills. These kid chopsticks are awesome for all sorts of fine motor activities.

3. Pom poms make a nice substitute for ping pong balls when using a catapult indoors, because they won't break anything when launched! If you don't have a diy catapult, your kids are in for a treat. Read our instructions for making a homemade catapult and how to use it for target practice.

4. Work those tiny finger muscles by pushing pom poms through slots in a container lid. This is one of my absolute favorite activities to bring out on the spur of the moment. It is sort of amazing how much the kids like to do this again and again. It's one of the best busy toddler activities ever.

5. Make art by shaking poms and paint in a container. Use the art later for lovely gift cards or frame it as unique art work.

6.  Save your egg cartons for counting practice. Even if your child is not ready to count, placing a pom pom in each section of the egg carton involves one to one correspondence, which is a very important early math skill.

7. Use the same egg carton for color sorting. Young children love sorting activities, another great way to help them develop pre-math skills.

8. Stick them on collages.

9. Stick them on toothpicks. A lollipop forest, maybe? Note: use caution with toothpicks, which are sharp. Alternatively, use straws. Balancing the pom poms on top of the straws is good for hand-eye coordination skills.

MORE: Reuse those toothpicks in this toothpick and colander fine motor activity

10. And finally, a little free play with egg cartons and cylindrical containers! This is also an excellent distraction for toddlers!

Originally published 2013, updated 2023.

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Because this telling time activity utilizes practical experience with train schedules, it's great for kids who love transportation. Use the excitement your child might have about attending an event to generate interest in learning how to tell time.

Telling Time Activity Materials

The preparation is very simple, but you'll want to plan your activity around an event or day trip. Then make a travel times worksheet.

Gather together:

• Sheet of paper
• Pen
• Quarter (coin), or other small round object

Telling Time Activity Instructions

On the left-hand side of your paper, list notable events and breaking points in your day trip. We chose going to theater as our event.

Our notable time intervals were:

• Leave apartment
• Arrive at train station
• Train arrives at station
• Train arrives at 42nd Street
• Show starts
• Show ends
• Time we meet dad at park
• Time we arrive at 42nd Street station
• Train arrival at 42nd Street station
• Train arrival at home station
• Time we arrive at home

We left the middle column of the worksheet blank. This is where you will write the time in number form (aka digital form), e.g. "4:42".

The right hand column consists blank clock faces. For each time, trace a circle around a quarter to make a clock face. Write in the numbers on the clock, but not the hands.

At each designated moment on our journey we noted the time both in the middle and right-hand columns. First write in the time in number format, then your child will draw the minute hand and hour hand in the correct position.

My son loved this activity! I was surprised to find out that he was able to accurately draw the clock hands! I don't remember teaching him that! His mind is like a sponge. Mine is like a sieve.

Our completed time telling activity worksheet:

The completed time travel activity worksheet is a visual aid to help kids develop a sense of how time passes and how the hands on a clock move. They will understand the meaning of the word, "clockwise," and the phrase "time flies when you are having fun!"

Variation: For a more advanced telling time activity, you could easily adapt this so kids make calculations about the time between each event.

Happy Time Travels!

Idea first published 2009, updated 2023.

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Your child does not need to turn on a screen and watch Sesame Street to learn how to count! The hands-on counting activity is a super easy math activity to do at home with little to no prep time. It also has the benefit of working fine motor skills!

It's based on a Montessori math activity, but you don't have to be an adherent of all aspects of the Montessori educational method to appreciate how simple and effective this learning activity is!

Materials

Instructions

The Montessori method prescribes a specific way of demonstrating this activity to your child. At home, we don't follow these methods so feel free to do the same.

What we did:

Hand your child the number cards so they can arrange them in order, offering corrections, if need be.

Next, give your child the bowl of beans, or other counters. Explain that there are exactly the number of beans required to place the correct quantity of beans next to each corresponding number.

Because there are exactly 55 beans, if your child reaches 10 and either has beans left over or has run out before completing the task, he will know he has made an error. This is known as "error control."

If your child has made an error, ask him to start the task again.

When your child has completed the counting activity task, have them go back to each number and recount all the quantities to double-check his work.

Variations

Count out loud while placing the beans. This encourages the learner to slow down and take a moment to notice the visual representation of quantity.

You can offer more than 55 beans, but this eliminates error control.

Place the numbers in random order. The child can then rearrange them before counting. Alternatively, have them count out beans while the numbers remain in random order.

If you want to expand on fine motor work, try the counting activity using counters of different sizes, shapes and materials. You could count with pompoms, blocks, or give your child a pair of kid-friendly chopsticks with which to pick up the counters.

First published 2008; updated 2023.

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The next theme week of math camp is "patterns and math art," one of my very favorite subjects! But before you go, be sure to hop over to Coffee Cups and Crayons for another geometry math activity (using grapes no less!) to tide you over until next Thursday.

Previous camp mathematics fun: 

• Counting game to teach subtraction
• Magic squares

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Turn Over 10 is a clever, mathematical twist on the classic memory card game, making it a great game for kids who are practicing their math skills.

Anyone with a child learning math facts knows that making math practice fun with games and activities is very important! That's why so many teachers and parents use games like Make 10 Go Fish or Math Tic Tac Toe to bolster kids' mental math skills.

Card games are excellent ways to practice math because there are no special math tools and materials to gather, no screens to turn on. Everyone has a deck of cards at home!

So be sure to incorporate the fun math card game, Turn Over Ten, into your child's math curriculum!

What you need

• A standard deck of cards. Remove the 10s, jacks, queens, and kings.
• 2 enthusiastic players (can play with more, but best with 2)

Instructions

Shuffle the deck of cards.

Place 20 cards, face down, in a 4 x 5 array. Place the remaining cards in a stack at the side of the array.

The first player turns over any two cards.

If the cards add up to 10, he collects the cards and takes another turn. If they don't add up to 10, he turns them face down and the second player takes a turn.

At the end of a turn, if a player has removed one or more pairs of cards, he fills the empty spots in array with cards from the remaining stack.

The game ends when players can no longer make any combinations of 10 with the remaining cards.

The winner is the player who has collected the most pairs.

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Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by G. Brian Karas. I know, it sounds crazy to set up a lemonade stand in the snow, but these young entrepreneurs will not be dissuaded. This book teaches counting, addition and subtraction as well as predicting. Your kids will be singing a catchy little tune, setting up their own stand, and sorting their change by the time you finish reading.

Zero the Hero by Joan Holub, illustrated byTom Lichtenheld. Who knew a math picture book could be so joyful? Zero proclaims himself a hero, but the other numbers just aren't buying it so Zero goes on a mission to prove himself. Kids learn the concept of zero and why it's important. This is a fun book to spend some time over, with lots of clever dialogue and asides in speech bubbles.

The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley; Billy Aronson. I don't mean to sound like a snob (it just comes naturally, ha ha ha) but I didn't know about the PBS show, Peg and Cat, which leads me to the chicken and egg problem... which can first the book or the show. The book... I think? Anyway... Peg and Cat like to solve problems and one day when the chicks get out of the coop, there are a lot of problems -- math problems -- to solve.

Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong, is a fun way to teach about doubling. In this mathematical folktale, a man finds a large pot in his garden. When he uses it to store his purse of gold coins, he discovers the pot’s magic properties. The couple use the pot to increase their wealth and double everything they own, including themselves.

Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal. This nonfiction math picture book is an interesting look at numbers in the animal world. Cross-disciplinary learning is one of the most effective ways for kids to explore their passions. Number-loving kids will enjoy reading about animals and nature-loving kids will start to connect to the mathematical world.

How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti, illustrated by Yancey Labat. Kids are fascinated by very large numbers. It can be hard to grasp just how big a thousand is, let alone a million. In the narrative, a couple of kids try to one up each other on the number of jelly beans they will eat. A giant fold out page illustration demonstrates exactly how many they would need to eat should they actually get 1 million jelly beans. (I'm getting a stomach ache just thinking about it.)

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin's Classroom Series) by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Students in a classroom learn about skip counting, addition and estimating quantity by comparing how many seeds are in each child's pumpkin.

This Plus That: Life's Little Equations by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Jen Corace. Sometimes you need a break from concrete mathematical problem solving! This book is not going to teach your kids how to calculate 7 + 6, but it may just help them see that adding things up is bigger than counting. After reading this book, take a break from numbers and come up with your own "lifestyle calculations!"

Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti Jr., illustrated by Donald Crews. Bold graphics turn simple word problems into fun problem solving math calculations.

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst, illustrated by
Ray Cruz. Money is a terrific everyday tool to teach math and this picture book will help you along. Check out how coins can help with sorting and skip counting! Alexander's grandparents give him a dollar and he has to figure out how to spend it wisely. Sure, there are some outdated items like phone booths, and a dollar doesn't go quite so far anymore, but that's all part of the fun.

Pigeon Math by Asia Citro, illustrated by Richard Watson. Math is fun when it is also hilarious! Citro's clever and wacky narrative follows the chaos that happens when trying to count pigeons that won't stay still. The concept of unstable quantities and may be unfamiliar to kids before reading Pigeon Math, but surely they will want to learn more afterwards!

Geometry and Patterning Math Picture Books

These books about patterns, shapes, symmetry and other geometry concepts are excellent supplement materials for any math lesson at home or in the classroom.

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns, illustrated by Gordon Silveria. This geometry picture book explores shapes and angles, and is good supplementary material for a classroom geometry unit. A triangle continues to add angles to his "body." His greediness transforms his shape into something new.

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.

MORE: Symmetry Math Art Project for Kids

Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Tangrams are a wonderful hands on way for kids to learn about geometry. In this story about two shape-shifting fox fairies, kids see tangrams in action and will be motivated to create their own pictures with the traditional puzzle shapes.

Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Mooe is a well-read book in our house. Sid is a cat who has six owners, gets six dinners, has six names and has to go to the vet six times. Patterning and simple counting are seamlessly woven in to the narrative. Kids won't even realize they are strengthening their math skills!

Follow the Line (series) by Laura Ljungkvist is a classic picture book in which a single line creates a multiple number of scenes. While it may not seem like your typical math book, the illustrations reinforce spatial concepts and geometry. Plus, it's just really cool!

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.

Math at the Museum by Group Majoongmul, illustrated by Yun-ju Kim. A family decides to visit a museum where they gaze upon masterpieces and learn the hidden mathematical principles behind their compositions. Numerous famous artworks are highlighted and the book includes hands-on activities kids can explore after reading. Be sure to visit your local museum, too!

MORE: Math Art Picture Books

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes is a gorgeous introduction to the world of mathematical spirals in nature. Short, charming poems identify both common and mysterious spirals in the natural world, drawing kids into the lyrical text. Be sure to go out for a nature walk afterwards.

MORE: 21 Beautiful Math Art Projects for Kids

Measurement and Telling Time Books

Learning about units of measurements, whether it's length, width, or volume is important for mathematic-based subjects like engineering. Measuring and telling time both require a knowledge of fractions and these books make math learning fun.

Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. We all know that cooking involves a lot of math, and this book is a nice way to introduce just why math and proportions are important to recipes. There aren't a lot of historical fiction picture books that you can also use to teach math so grab this one!

A Second is a Hiccup by Hazel Hutchins, illustrated Kady MacDonald Denton. In this whimsical rhyming picture book about measurements, Hutchins compares units of time to ordinary human moments, like hiccups, a song, or time spent in pretend play. Kids will no doubt want to measure how long their own actions take to compare to the examples in the book, which would be a fun way to incorporate this book into a measuring unit lesson plan!

An Oak Tree Grows by G. Brian Karas. What's 200 years in the life of an oak tree? This beautiful book helps kids explore long stretches of time, relative size and how the world changes as time passes, even if you can measure by two centuries!

How Long or How Wide? A Measuring Guide by Brian P. Cleary, illustrated by Brian Gable. Part of the Math Is CATegorical series, this rhyming, humorous nonfiction book is a comprehensive look at measuring lengths. Kids will learn about the metric system and U.S. units of length. The illustrations feature animals using measuring tools to size up and compare items in the world around them. The Math Is CATegorical series also has good math books about time, fractions, patterns and more.

I am collaborating with The Measured Mom on this math education series. Hop on over to get some quality ideas to help kids continue to love math in K - 2 and avoid the "I'm no good at math!" complaint.

MORE SIMPLE MATH FUN:

• Number matching game for kindergarteners
• Math practice for kindergarteners with Double Shutter

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