Sponge art transformations – Early Stage 1

This is a thinking mathematically targeted teaching opportunity focussed on investigating and using squares to create an artwork.

Adapted from youcubed

Syllabus

Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from Mathematics K–10 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023

Outcomes

  • MAO-WM-01
  • MAE-2DS-01

Collect resources

You will need:

  • scissors
  • sponges to cut up
  • 3 different coloured paints
  • 3 bowls (or containers to put the paint in)
  • 2 sheets of paper for each design
  • a piece of string.

Watch

Watch the Sponge art transformations Early Stages 1 video (9:04).

Create square sponges to make an artwork using paint.

[Text over a navy-blue background: Sponge art transformations. Smaller text in brackets beneath reads: Early Stage 1. Beneath this, text reads: From youcubed. Small font text in the bottom left-hand corner reads: NSW Mathematics Strategy Professional Learning (NSWMS PL team). In the lower right-hand corner is the red waratah of the NSW Government logo.]

Speaker

Hey, mathematicians. Today we're going to create some sponge art transformations from youcubed.

[Text on a white background reads: You will need…

· Scissors

· Sponges to cut up

· 3 different coloured paints

· 3 bowls (or containers to put the pain in)

· 2 sheets of paper for each design

To the right of the text is an image of 2 horizontal pieces of paper placed beside each-other, with a pair of orange handled scissors on the right. Above the pieces of paper are 3 bowls, they are orange, blue and pink. The orange bowl has a dollop of yellow paint in it, the blue bowl has a red dollop of paint in it, and the pink bowl has a blue dollop of paint in it. To the right of these bowls are 3 square pieces of pink sponge.

Speaker

For this activity, you'll need scissors, sponges to cut up, three different coloured paints, three bowls or containers to put the paint in, two sheets of paper for each design.

[White text on a blue background reads: Let’s create!]

Speaker

Let's create.

[3 square pieces of a yellow sponge in different sizes sit on a horizontal piece of white paper. Above the paper are the 3 bowls of paint.

Speaker

Hey, mathematicians, I've been cutting up some sponges to design my own wrapping paper. What kind of shapes do you think that I'll make from printing my sponges?

[The speaker grabs the medium sized sponge and dips it in the yellow paint.]

Speaker

Hmm, let's have a look. I think I might start with the medium-size sponge.So, let's get some yellow paint. We'll give it a dip, dip, dip. And then I think I'm gonna start by putting my yellow square right in the middle of my piece of paper, and I might just move these two out of the way.

[DECRIPTION: The speaker places the paint-covered side of the sponge face down on the middle of the piece of paper. She then moves the large-sized piece of sponge off the paper and to the left, and the small-sized sponge off the paper and to the right.]

Speaker

So, let's give it a nice sponge. Pull it up.

[The speaker lifts up the medium-sized sponge from the paper, revealing a yellow square of paint. She places the sponge back in the bowl with the yellow paint.]

Speaker

Hmm. What shape do you think I've made? I'm looking at it very closely and I'm starting to think about what I notice. I notice it has four sides.

[The speaker outlines the painted square with her finger.]

Speaker

I notice that the sides are straight.

[The speaker holds her straightened finger in line with the left side of the square and then the bottom edge of the square.]

Speaker

I know that a rectangle has four sides and my shape has four sides.

[The speaker points at the painted square.]

Speaker

Could it be a rectangle? What else do we know about rectangles?

[Over the square, the speaker outlines the shape of a rectangle with her finger.]

Speaker

I know that rectangles can have two longer sides and two shorter sides. But when I look at my yellow print today, I think these sides are pretty even.

[The speaker outlines the square with her finger.]

Speaker

But, you know, we're good mathematicians, and good mathematicians, we always check.

[The speakers hands fade into view over the paper with a black piece of wool held taut between her two hands.]

Speaker

I've brought a piece of wool with me. And I thought we could check if the sides are even. Now, we know that even means the same. So, I'm going to put my wool to check the length of this side.

[The speaker aligns the segment of wool held taut between her two hands with the top side of the square.]

Speaker

And I know now that the top side is this long.

[The speaker holds up the segment of wool which is of equal length to the top side of the square.]

Speaker

So, let's see if the other sides are the same length.

[The speaker aligns the segment of wool with the remaining edges of the square.]

Speaker

Oh yeah, that one looks the same, and this one looks the same, and this one looks the same. So, my shape can't be a rectangle. What shapes do I know that have four straight sides that are all the same length?

[The speaker outlines the painted square with her finger.]

Speaker

I know of a special kind of rectangle, and I know a special kind of rectangle is called a square. Now, it's special like a rectangle because it has four sides.

[The speaker outlines the painted square with her finger.]

Speaker

It has four sides that are straight. But my square is really special because all the sides are the same length, which we checked with our piece of rope.

[The speaker dabs the medium-sized sponge in the yellow paint.]

Speaker

Alright, let's add to our wrapping paper now. So, I'm going to get a little bit more paint.

[The speaker hovers the sponge over the painted square.]

Speaker

Now, I've already got a square here but I want to put my square on top of this square.

[The speaker moves the sponge and hovers it above the painted square.]

Speaker

But instead of putting it down straight, I think I'm going to turn it a little bit

[The speaker rotates the square to the left and presses it into the paper, painting a rotated square, like a diamond, above the square.]

Speaker

And I'm gonna squidge it down. And look what happens when I turn my square to the side.
[The speaker hovers the medium-sized sponge over the newly painted square. She rotates it.]

Speaker

Is it still a square? How could we check? Let's try with our piece of wool again. Let's get it out. Getting lots of paint on my fingers now.

[The speaker holds the measured segment of wool to each side of the square.]

Speaker

We can check this side. Let's see, is this side the same length? Yes, it is. Is this side the same length? It is. And one more side. Look, even when I turn my square to the side, it still stays a square.

[The speaker dabs the medium-sized sponge in the yellow paint.]

Let's see what happens when I turn it in the other direction.

[The speaker hovers the medium-sized sponge immediately to the right of the painted square.]

So, I'm gonna slide my shape across. Now, last time I turned my sponge this way, this time I'm going to turn my sponge the other way.

[The speaker rotates the sponge to the right. She presses the paint-soaked sponge into the paper.]

Speaker

Give it a press down, press down, press down. And look at that. It looks the same as the one up on top.

[The speaker points to the rotated square above the original square.]

Now, get a little bit more paint, and I think I want to put another one underneath.

[The speaker dabs the medium-sized sponge in the yellow paint and hovers it immediately beneath the painted square.]

But I'm going to turn my square again. I'll slide it down the bottom and turn and press.

[The speaker rotates the square sponge to the left and presses it into the paper, painting a rotated square.]

Speaker

Oh, look at my amazing design. But I feel like I need just one more square over here.

[The speaker dabs the medium-sized square sponge in the yellow paint. She then presses it into the paper to the left of the painted square, painting a rotated square.]
Oh, look at that. What a beautiful design so far. What about this small sponge here? Let's see what shape we can make with this small sponge.

[The speaker picks up the small-sized square piece of sponge and dabs it in the red paint.]

Speaker

Need paint all over it. Maybe too much paint. I'm going to put it down nice and straight.

[The speaker presses the sponge into the paper above and diagonally to the right of the yellow painted square, painting a red square.]

Oh, look at that. What shape do you think this sponge is?

[The speaker holds the small piece of sponge.]

Yeah, I think it's a square, too. It's got four sides.

[The speaker outlines the red painted square with her finger.]

And just like this shape, they're even. But this square is smaller than this one.

[The speaker points to the rotated yellow square beneath the red square and to the right of the straight yellow square.]

Alright, let's see what happens when we turn this square.

[The speaker hovers the small-sized square sponge over the red painted square.]

I'm going to turn my square this way and print it down.

[The speaker rotates the sponge to the left and presses it into the paper in line with the top right-hand corner of the square, painting a rotated square.]

Speaker

Oh, that looks great. Alright. I'm going to do another straight square down here. And when I print my sponge, even when I turn it, we still end up with a square.

[The speaker paints a straight red square beneath and diagonally to the right of the initial straight yellow square. She then paints a rotated square with it’s edge facing the lower right-hand corner of the previous square.]

Speaker

Let's just continue. And then turn. And then a straight square and a turned square.

[The speaker paints a straight red square beneath and diagonally to the left of the initial straight yellow square. She then paints a rotated square with it’s edge facing the lower left-hand corner of the previous square. She then paints a straight red square above and diagonally to the left of the initial straight yellow square. She then paints a rotated square with it’s edge facing the upper left-hand corner of the previous square]

Speaker

Now, I haven't got to use my big blue sponge yet, so I might finish off with my big blue sponge today.

[The speaker dips the large sponge in the blue paint.]

Speaker

Let's get some paint on my big blue sponge. Not enough paint on my big blue sponge. There we go. Alright, let's fit it in here. I'll squidge it down. What shape do you think this one's gonna be? It's a bit bigger than the yellow one.

[The speaker presses the large sponge into the lower left-hand corner of the piece of paper, painting a blue square.]

Oh, look at that.

[The speaker outlines the square with her finger.]

And look, we've still got four sides, and I think these ones are the same length, too. I'm wondering what happens when I turn my shape and put it on top of my other blue square?

[The speaker rotates the sponge to the right until it is straight again, then presses it into the paper above the previous square, painting a blue square.]

Oh, look, it ends up the same shape. Alright, let's try over this side, I'll put my square down.

[The speaker presses the large sponge into the lower right-hand corner of the piece of paper, painting a blue square.]

Speaker

What if I turn this one just a little bit?

[The speaker rotates the square into a tilted square position.]

Speaker

Let's see what shape it is now.

[The speaker presses the sponge into the paper, painting a rotated square above the previous straight square.]

Oh, look at that. Print on its side.

[The speaker outlines the blue rotated square with her finger.]

But do you know what I know? It's still a square. Even when we turn it around, it's still got four sides.

[The speaker outlines the square multiple times with her finger.]

And those sides are still even. Look at my beautiful wrapping paper. I think my friend's gonna be really impressed when I wrap his present this afternoon when this is dry. |

[White text on a blue background reads: What’s (some of) the mathematics?

Speaker

What's some of the mathematics that we explored today?

[Text on a white background reads: When we printed our sponge we used what we knew about shapes to see that we had printed a square. Beneath this text there is 3 images side by side depicting the previous exercise. The images depict the horizontal piece of paper with three bowls of paint above, and a straight yellow square in the middle. The first image shows the speaker holding a segment of wool taut and horizontal, the second shows the speaker aligning the wool with the left edge of the yellow square, and the third image shows the speaker aligning the wool with the right edge of the square. Beneath these images text reads:

· We knew it was a square because it had four straight sides and we used the wool to help us prove that the sides were all the same length.]

Speaker

When we printed our sponge, we used what we knew about shapes to see that we had printed a square.

We knew it was a square because it had four straight sides. And we used the wool to help us prove that the sides were all the same length.

[Text on a white background reads: When we moved the sponge in different ways, we noticed that we still printed squares, because they still had four straight equal sides. Beneath this text is an image of the piece of paper from the last exercise with the speaker pressing in the sponge to paint the final rotated blue square.]

Speaker

When we moved our sponge in different ways, we noticed that we still printed squares. We knew they were squares because they had four straight equal sides.

[Text on a white background reads: We also noticed that squares can come in different sizes and colours. We printed small red squares, medium sized yellow squares and big blue squares. Beneath this text is an image of the piece of paper with all of the squares painted on it from the previous exercise.]

Speaker

We also noticed that squares can come in different sizes and colours. We printed small red squares, medium-sized yellow squares and big blue squares.

[White text on a blue background reads: Over to you to move shapes in different ways to create some beautiful wrapping paper.]

Speaker

Over to you to move shapes in different ways, to create some beautiful wrapping paper. Don't forget to ask for help when cutting out your shapes.

[Over a grey background, the red waratah of the NSW Government logo appears amongst red, white and blue circles. Text: Copyright State of New South Wales (Department of Education), 2021.]

[End of transcript]

Instructions

  • Ask an adult for some help to cut up some sponges and to put some different coloured paints in bowls.
  • Use one of your sponges to print shapes on the paper to make some wrapping paper.
  • Print some more shapes on your wrapping paper. Remember to try slide your sponge then print and also try turning your sponge then printing.
  • Try turning your sponge in different directions, what shape do you print when you turn your sponge a little bit?
  • If you have printed a square, check if each side of your square is the same length by using a piece of string.

Discuss

  • How do we know when a square is a square?
  • What happens to a square when we turn it? Is it still a square?
  • When you moved your sponge in different ways, what did you notice?
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