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Art and math are a dream team: Just ask Leonardo da Vinci or Albrecht Dürer, masters who knew their way around both a brush and a compass. Whether it’s symmetry in a leaf or patterns in a mosaic, math is hiding in plain sight, and that’s great news for teachers. 

Math art projects are a creative way to reinforce concepts like fractions, geometry, and measurement while giving students the freedom to express themselves. Whether you’re an art teacher hunting for fresh ideas or a general education teacher ready to shake up your math routine, grab those markers and let the math-inspired masterpieces begin. 

1. Fractions Quilt

Projected Time: 3 days
Math Concepts: Fractions
Additional Materials: Scissors, glue, colored pencils/markers

Combining parts of a whole and art gives students a hands-on way to explore fractions while making something they’re proud of. And it’s the perfect way to explore CCSS 3.NF.A and 4.NF.A, helping them understand how fractions relate to a whole and where they belong on the number line. Display all the quilts from your class together as one big quilt for a cool math display. 

Fraction Quilt Art and Math Project by Teaching in Room 6
By Teaching in Room 6
Grades: 3rd-4th

This 25-page PDF is a ready-to-go resource for a three-day lesson, complete with an answer key. You’ll get step-by-step instructions, fraction practice, an anchor chart, and a quilt template. Once complete, the vibrant student designs are ready to shine on your bulletin board. 

2. Equivalent Fractions Kite

Projected Time: 30-60 minutes
Math Concepts: Fractions
Additional Materials: Scissors, glue, tape, colored pencils/markers

Get your elementary learners to recognize equivalent fractions easily with a craft. An art creation is perfect for reinforcing key fraction concepts and helping students build confidence in mathematical understanding. It’s also a fun or end-of-unit activity. 

Equivalent Fractions Kite – Math Art Project- Hands On and Differentiated
By Yearn to Learn
Grades: 3rd-5th

Inside the 24-page PDF, you’ll find kite kits, sample designs, patterns, and fraction nameplates. Featuring 12 fraction equivalencies, students can create unique kite patterns. The project is flexible enough to be completed in one day or extended over several lessons. 

3. Angle Art

Projected Time: 15-30 minutes
Math Concepts: Angles, degrees
Additional Materials: Crayons, markers, colored pencils

Geometry is all around us, so it’s easy to see how it connects perfectly with math artwork projects. These vibrant creations help to brighten up a bulletin board or show how art can connect across subjects. 

Angle Art Drawings Geometry Math Activity
By Raising Scholars
Grades: 4th
Standards: CCSS.4.MD.C.6

This resource includes everything students need to create vibrant art and label angles. This 24-page resource, perfect for 4th-grade math art projects, features 30 templates, clear teacher directions, and an answer key.

4. Custom Capacity Robot

Projected Time: 30-60 minutes
Math Concepts: Customary units of measure
Additional Materials: Paper, crayons/colored pencils, scissors, glue

Make converting gallons to cups an adventure with a creative art project aligned with CCSS.4.MD.2. Engage kinesthetic learners and display your robot army above lockers as a colorful reminder of volume conversions. This project is versatile enough for your junior high art projects, as well. 

Gallon Man Robot Customary Capacity Activity Art Project Pint, Quart Math Review 
By You Awesome Helper
Grades: 3rd-8th

Get everything you need in this three-page download that includes an example sheet, step-by-step directions, and a ready-to-use printable. It’s perfect for a no-prep sub activity. 

5. Color By Code 

Projected Time: 30-60 minutes
Math Concept: Basic operations, decimals, fractions
Additional Materials: Markers, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, construction paper

A touch of mystery and the option to color can turn basic operations into an engaging math challenge. A seemingly simple color-by-number project is a great way to sneak in extra math practice, whether prepping for end-of-year testing, looking for Pi Day activities, or blending subjects in a creative math-and-art cross-curricular unit.

Color by Code Math Activities: Operations with Rational Numbers Holiday Bundle 
By The Routty Math Teacher
Grades: 5th
Standards: CCSS4.NBT.B.4, CCSS4.NBT.B.5, CCSS4.NBT.B.6

You’ve got options with this 211-page printable packed with math projects for 5th graders, which covers basic operations, fractions, and decimals. It’s perfect for celebrating seasons and holidays, and it includes a complete answer key.

6. Math Pixel Art

Projected Time: 30-60 minutes
Math Concepts: Volume, rectangular prism
Additional Materials: Computer

Have you been thinking of incorporating some STEM projects for kids into your art classroom? Explore volume through a creative, hands-on lens. When students build pictures one color at a time, they often don’t even realize they’re applying a formula. 

Volume of Rectangular Prisms 5th Grade Math Pixel Art Digital Volume Activity 
By Pick Up and Go Resources
Grades: 5th-7th
Standards: CCSS5.MD.C.5b

This no-mess Google Sheets pixel art project includes two differentiated activities with 10 or 20 questions to meet all your students’ needs. . 

7 Easy Math Art Projects for Lower Elementary Students

Early elementary students are just beginning to explore basic math ideas, like telling the difference between 2-D and 3-D shapes, recognizing polygons, and learning number facts that will build their confidence for later math concepts. This exciting stage gives both art and math teachers a unique chance to team up and show kids that shapes and numbers can come to life through art. Together, they can bridge subjects to inspire a love of math. 

• Design a City Silhouette: Give students black and white paper shapes. Have them arrange the pieces to create a cityscape collage and glue them onto a white background.
• Roll a Math Monster: Give students two dice and a list of monster parts (like eyes, ears, arms, and legs). They’ll roll both dice, subtract the smaller number from the larger, and use the result to decide how many of each part to draw on their monster. It’s a fun and creative way to practice subtraction while designing wild and wacky creatures. 
• Sketch a Colorful Math Garden: Students draw a simple flower garden with petals in multiples of 2 (skip counting). They will then color them using an AB color pattern.
• Paint a Symmetrical Selfie: Have students fold construction paper in half and paint a selfie of half their face with puffy or fabric paint. Then they fold the paper to create the other half. 
• Skip Count a Galaxy: On blue construction paper, students use white paint markers to create star clusters grouped by skip counts (2s, 4s, 5s, 10s), counting up to 100. They label each cluster (5, 10, 20, etc.) and add swirling patterns to make their dazzling galaxies come to life. 
• Create a Shape Safari: Provide students with colorful shapes in different sizes and colors. Have them collage the shapes to build animals, then add googly eyes and fun details to decorate their safari. Label the shapes in an answer key. 
• Build a Coin Creature: Give students play money in different denominations, glue, rubber bands, etc. Challenge them to create a 3-D creature out of $5 worth of play money. 

7 Fun and Challenging Math Art Projects for Upper Elementary Students

In grades 3-5, kids aren’t just crunching numbers — they’re exploring place value, decimals, measurement, and geometry. So if you want to merge math and art, think angles, grids, and data. Bring life to your art room by blending color and core concepts to help math stick.

• Draw with Prime and Composite Numbers: Give pointillism a math twist using prime and composite numbers to control shading. After sketching out their image, students write prime numbers close together to create dark shadows and space out composite numbers for lighter areas, revealing the full picture when viewed from a distance.
• Practice Polygon Portraits: Combine abstract art and geometry by having students recreate a famous realistic portrait using only colored 2D shapes. Encourage them to focus on symmetry and patterns to represent facial features and artistic details. 
• Construct a Fibonacci Collage: Students create a Fibonacci sequence on a canvas or paper, complete with the spiral. In each section, they draw and color an image representing the corresponding Fibonacci number, ensuring all images relate to each other enough to form a cohesive collage.
• Twist Perception with Hand Art: Students lightly trace a hand on paper. They draw straight parallel lines across the background that curve within the hand to create a 3D optical illusion that makes the hand appear to lift off the page.
• Hide Math in Delicious Designs: Serve a still-life feast, sandwiches, grapes, cupcakes, and more, and have students draw it with a twist. They must sneak in several math concepts they’ve learned: slice a sandwich into perfect fractions, build a pattern with grapes, or tuck an equation into frosting swirls.
• Draft a Mandala Collage: Hand out protractors and challenge students to divide circles into equal sections using specific angles to design several intricate mandalas. They will then cut, color, and collage them to make math art. 
• Paint a Decimal into Reality: Give students a decimal and have them paint it using vanishing lines and 1-point perspective. For example, they have a road stretching into the distance with 0.25 shaded or a row of lockers where 0.6 is painted blue.

Crunch numbers creatively with TPT math art projects

From symmetry and grids to number lines and repeating patterns, math is built into the world around us. Go beyond color theory and drawing techniques by mixing in some math magic with hands-on math art activities from TPT. Whether you’re an art teacher, a creative homeschooler, or a general education rockstar, you’ll find everything you need to make math vibrant and meaningful.