How Does Famous Artwork Measure Up?

On our recent trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario we saw so much math in all the beautiful artworks!

Pictured are many different flowers in a field. These flowers are different heights, shapes and widths. They are positioned in a way that makes some of them longer than the others, some are placed on a slight hill. There are smaller flowers placed at the bottom of the picture and in the middle of the picture, while the large flowers are placed on the sides, with the largest flowers being placed on the right side of the painting.

Supporting Children's Learning of Measurement

This image can be used to discuss non-standard measurement as the flowers in the picture are different heights. The children could measure a few of the flowers and discuss how their heights and widths differ. This will help support the children’s learning of measurement through investigating relationships between the sizes of a unit and the number of units needed to measure the length of the flower. This could also support their development of estimating as they will be able to compare the heights of the flowers by looking at the picture and estimating which flowers are higher. This picture allows children to explore height and length and even incorporate science into the activity where the educator could discuss how flowers grow and at each stage the students could measure the heights at each growth stage, thus making real world connections. As an extension, the educator could bring the students out to their field and get them to pick flowers and the use these flowers as a non-standard measurement unit.