Pumpkin Art....I Love a Good Rectangle Common Core 1.G

I love to integrate art into all my subject areas! Fall is here and everyone is talking about fall and all of the exciting seasonal changes that come with fall. All of the children love pumpkins and there are so many wonderful books about pumpkins for literacy but I wanted to have an art activity that integrated math. I love a good rectangle and all of the ways it can be reshaped with scissors and tearing. Since I am focusing on Geometry in the Common Core Standards for math especially 1.G I decided we could reshape some rectangles into some Pumpkin Patch Art. We did this activity over several days. I gave the children each of the shapes you see in the photograph below. The only one that is missing is a very long rectangle which is 1 x 18 inches out of green paper for the curly stem.

The children used the brown rectangle which was 4 x 18 inches to make the ground on the blue paper which is a full size rectangle. Then they cut the corners on the orange rectangles to reshape them into circles and ovals. My orange pieces were 8 x 10 and 5 x 7 inches you can vary it however you like.

I showed the children how to make ribs on their pumpkins using a black crayon. They really worked at this and made their pumpkins look very authentic and creative. I never showed them a complete example. I do not like completed examples because I want each child's art work to be an original.

One of the parts the children enjoyed the most was making the curly vines. I demonstrated how to tear the thin green long rectangle in half with their fingers. Some of them were a bit upset because their piece tore in half...no worries I explained we can still use it. It just makes the artwork look more unique and adds details. I love details in everything. My kids know this word backwards and forwards. Detail in writing, math etc. Details paint a better picture in our minds I tell them.

The children have gotten so many compliments on their art . It is displayed in the hallway outside of our room. This is an excellent activity for converting shapes! Look for for more rectangle art in my blog. I love a good rectangle in reading, math in everything!!