Thursday, June 26, 2014

Summer Fun 2014 - Sidewalk Chalk Paint Tape Resist - Marvelous Math Madness



Coffee Cups and Crayons posted a tape resist project using sidewalk chalk paint, a week or so ago.  It looked like so much fun, I knew we were going to have to try it.  As soon as I pulled out the chalk for the girls' starburst driveway drawings, and they started asking when we were going to make more chalk paint, the time seemed right to give it a try.

We pulled a shape from the Marshall Hampton's Mathematical Coloring Book , settling on an "orthogonal hypercube projection", because it while it was pretty, and looked like it would be fun to color in, it also looked like something we could manage to outline with masking tape.  Basically it's just an octagon, filled in with eight squares coming off of each side.

I taped out a slightly lopsided octagon...


...and E (age 9) helped by marking 90° from each corner...


...for the squares.


Considering we were eyeballing the lengths of tape...


...and had a nine year old marking the degrees...


...I thought our shape came out pretty good.  Not perfect...


...but close enough for painting, anyway.  The girls smashed up a pieces of sidewalk chalk to mix with water, for their paint, and then got to work...


...filling in the shapes.  They were so intent on the squares, and triangles...


...they didn't even see the pretty star pattern emerging.  Pretty enough in fact, to draw one of their older sisters out into the sun, to join them.


They ended up using the tape more as an outline, than a resist project, but still thought it was pretty cool, when we pulled the pieces away from the dry paint..


...revealing their design.


As it turns out, this particular shape is even more fun to model in 3D, than to color when it's flat.

You might want to gather a package of colored toothpicks, a bag of mini-marshmallows, and consider coming back tomorrow.

11 comments:

Annette Whipple said...

Beautiful!

Making it in 3-D will be such fun for you. We need to do that this summer, too. I used to teach a class that focused on building with gumdrops and toothpicks. Such fun.

Unknown said...

This is AH-mazing- what an excellent way to practice Geometry!

MaryAnne said...

This is fantastic! Your blog REALLY makes me want to homeschool...

Karen said...

Excellent job!
KUDOS!

Tell the kids that they are geometry geniuses!

Phyllis said...

That is so cool...and beautiful.

claireshomeeducation said...

I repeat - you guys are doing the coolest things! I wish I had the nerve to 'almost unschool'. I guess it's a process we're moving slowly towards, but it appeals so much...

Sunita said...

Thank you!!! We did this today and it was an awesome activity for a summer day and everyone now knows well what a 90-deg angle is, and enjoyed seeing the pattern emerge. And now the kids are smashing more chalk with a hammer!

Ticia said...

So very very pretty. We need to drag out our chalk again while we're having a "cold snap" (it's only in the mid 80s).

Bethany said...

How beautiful is that? I love the idea of using tape to outline the shape!

Kerrie McLoughlin said...

Is there any way you would let me use your finished product photo for some regional parenting magazine articles if my Sneak in Learning Over the Summer piece sells? You would get photo credit, of course!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Kerrie - That would be fine - thanks!