Pattern Painting

In this project, we used the letters in our names and colors to make patterns.

The procedure:

• fold a large piece of white paper in half, in half again, and then into thirds
• open it up to reveal 12 small squares
• glue the white paper onto a piece of 12 x 18 colored construction paper to make a border
• precut small squares out of colored construction paper the same size as the ones just made in the white paper
• glue the colored construction paper squares in every other square of the white paper with the edges of the colored paper matching the outside edges of the white paper to create a checkerboard effect
• draw with oil pastels the letters of your name in the squares starting at the top
• repeat the letters in your name to fill in all of the squares
• use watercolors to paint over the top of the letters in the white squares

For this project I was able to create many patterns. They are:

• the letters in my name are written in bubble / block / bubble / block
• the letters are written in purple / yellow / green
• the letters written in yellow I painted over with blue-green
• the letters written in purple I painted over with yellow

An extension activity used in math class would be using geometric shapes to make patterns in the blocks. Students would chose their own geometric patterns to fill in the squares and then paint over the white ones with watercolor. They would share their geometric patterns at their pods.