Making Math Artful on Post-it Notes

Pari absolutely loves post-it notes. Since Avie (hubby) uses these a lot – to scribble ideas, To Dos etc. we have them around at home all the time. She never lets go of an opportunity to write on them. And writes all sorts of things - reminders (“I have to wake up early tomorrow”) to Birthday Messages to ‘lists’ or just random thoughts.

This past week, I spied a pack of purple post-its at hubby’s desk and was tempted to try out another art experiment! I asked Pari if she’d be interested to join me in this project.

She was inclined but she had already set her mind on learning the multiplication table of 5 that moment. So, she asked if she could write her multiplication table on those post-it notes.

Instantly, I suggested what if she could ‘illustrate’ her multiplication table using paint etc. I know it may sound manipulative on my part but then the idea excited her (if she wouldn’t have been, I’d have dropped the idea for her and carried along on my own. Honest!). And then, making Math fun can never be a bad intention, can it?

So, we sat down with two paper bags – to stick the post-it notes on. Yes, paper bags never cease to inspire me!

We arranged our post-its (on the bag) in the way that each fancied.

Pari arranged her post-its in orderly fashion but played with colour rotation. While, I pasted my post-its in an abstract manner.

Once we were happy with the arrangement, we went about gluing them – their sticky side down.

When it came to painting the multiplication table, Pari applied the concept we’d discussed – multiplication being lots and each lot containing a fixed number of elements.

So, she painted one triangle with 5 dots to articulate 5 multiplied by 1. Two hearts with five dots each to show 5 multiplied by two and so on.

She went on till 5 X 11. After which, I suggested she did something else for the space would not be enough.

I’d never seen such artful and colourful Math before!

Having done this much, she moved on to play outside leaving a table that inspired me to go clickety click!

The next day, she wrote some quotes – on the remaining post-its – from a book that I have.

And, while I sat at her table reading a story to her, she also picked some words that she liked and wrote them on the last row – simultaneously embellishing the words.

You might wonder whatever happened to My version of the post-it art?

Well, this is how it turned out. Post-its are best to do some zentangle art – something I really enjoy doing and is nothing less than meditation to me.

What do you think?

This is how it looks in white light (below)

Hung side by side on the living room wall are both of our paintings.

So, I now have one more fascination to do art on – besides my fetish for paper bags. I think one can really experiment with post-it art and the results can be satisfying, too. For one – the limitation of size/area can make you think out-of-the-box. Two – the use-ability of the sticky side can lend itself to display in ingenious ways.

Surprisingly, when I searched the internet for more ideas on post-it art, I didn’t find anything inspiring! hmm….

Have you done art on post-its?

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Tagged as: creative, making math fun, paper bag art craft, post-it art