Colour Mat

Photograph of colour mat. It is approximately 2 metres long and features many brightly coloured squares

This mat is a combination of many activities done over several weeks. The activities were done in isolation and only when we were creating a display for our art show did we consider creating the mat.

Concepts

Symmetry - folding pages in halves, quarters etc. and cutting out small shapes to see the patterns.
Colour - naming and choosing colours. Our students had to practice matching colours, signing/saying colours and choosing specific colours. from choices of two or three.
Choices - choosing colours from choices of two or three
Shapes - circles, squares and diamonds.
Size - comparing big and little squares.

Skills

Cutting - snipping out shapes in the symmetry exercise.
Gluing - using a variety of pastes, glues and application methods.
Painting - using sponges, brushes and various other applicators (including dish washing brushes and rollers.)

Putting it together

We used a roll of brown wrapping paper as a base and used craft glue to attach the various squares. A good thing to do is to lay out the squares first and see if you can achieve a balance of colour and shape. After the glue had dried, black oil markers were used to outline squares.

It was good fortune and not good planning that our masterpiece could fit through our school laminator. If you intend to laminate your mat (great for wear and tear), check the width that your laminator can handle. We have the odd wrinkle in our mat, however this does not take away from the overall effect.

If you intend to use a mat such as this on a floor, check that it can be fastened down somehow as we found it slippery at first. Our solution was solved when my teaching partner used velcro tabs on the back of the mat. This works really well with a carpet.

Other Ideas Our student enjoy jumping on the mat, so we occasionally have games where they must jump on particular colours, and occasionally shapes. We intend to make miniature versions to use as placemats for presents. If you check out our number mat, you will see how we have been inspired by this mat.

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