whereby the author, Nina Laden, pays homage to Pablo Picasso and
the French Fauve artist, Henri Matisse, using verbal and visual puns.
These books, along with others, were maintained at a table in the
classroom’s “art library,” so that students could browse them over the
next few weeks at their leisure, providing them with additional
opportunities to visually experience art.
Figure 6. A mathematics classroom is transformed into a Cubist art gallery.
Math + art makes sense!
Figure 5. Second graders’ colorful cubist cityscapes.
Children are naturally inclined to observe and describe shapes and
should develop visualization skills through hands-on experiences with
a variety of geometric objects that allow them to create, turn, shrink,
and deform two- and three-dimensional objects. Additionally, students
need to learn about objects’ relative positions, such as above, behind,
near, and between. This is what we refer to as “perspective” in the art
classroom. The Common Core curriculum standards identify these
mathematical concepts and skills as learning goals for students as
early as kindergarten. Engaging young learners in the study and
creation of Cubist art provides students with these necessary
mathematical experiences, while underscoring the connection between
26