How to Make Math Fun (Compass Art)

I fell in love with this post about using a compass and watercolors for a child's craft.  I remember when I was in fifth grade math class we made compass art and drew geometric flowers with compass. Expanding the pin, I wanted to see if I could make some cool patterns with the compass and paint.  It turned out so great and was so fun to do with my daughter.  

The original pin used watercolors, but I found that the colors were too light and the paper eventually tore because of all the liquid.  I decided to use acrylic paint instead.  This made for bold colors that were not too wet and didn't soak into the paper.  To get a cool effect, I didn't completely clean my brushes between paints, that gave a nice artistic look to the flowers.

I posted a video tutorial on how to make these flower shapes with a compass.  Hopefully doing this will show kids that geometry is fun!

To make the paintbrush stay on the compass I needed to add some tape to thicken the handle.

Compass flower art.  YOu can see that the blue still has streaks of yellow in it because I didnt clean the brush completely.  You only want to do this (not clean the brush) for one or two colors.  Any more and you colors will become muddy.

I love the way these turned out. Such a fun project for all ages.