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August 14, 2013

Compass Painting

It is time for another Paint and Play challenge.  If this is your first time joining us,  the focus for our weekly series is all about the process, having fun and getting kids excited to create art with fun and unique mediums!  Our challenge this week was to get creative with School Supplies.  While Growing A Jeweled Rose is outside to creating Solar Crayon Art, we dusted up on our math skills by creating a Concentric Compass Painting. 

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

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Its almost time for my kids to go back to school and our summer break is coming to a close.  I will miss having a crazy busy house, but the kids can’t wait to see all their friends.  I am thankful that they still love school, it makes this process so much easier.

In order to get everyone back in the school groove, we are attempting to organize our school supplies.  As we were sorting all the pencils, rulers and notebooks, we came across a compass and a paint set.  After a little fiddling, we came up with a fun solution that allowed us to paint with our compass.  Look out beautiful circles, here we come!

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

 Compass Painting: 

  • Compass
  • Paint brush ~ with a skinny handle
  • Masking Tape
  • Watercolor Paint
  • White Paper

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

Our paintbrush was a little skinny to fit exactly into our compass.  To keep it from sliding around, we taped it with a little masking tape.

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

To begin creating, simply load your paint brush as you would normally, leaving it attached to the compass.  The kids found this a bit awkward at first, but the quickly got the hang of it.  We also found that a wet paint-filled brush worked better that a slightly dry brush.

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

I love all the beautiful overlapping circles.

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

We had so much fun covering the paper in as many circles as we could manage.

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

The kids soon discovered if they placed the point of the compass in the same spot and widened or narrowed the hinge of the compass, they were able to create a beautiful concentric circle pattern.  They were so excited by this simple discovery!

Compass Painting ~ Fun back to school art!

I have to admit, I brain starts to hurt when I hear mathematical words, and the thought of using a compass to create something playful and fun sounds like a total contradiction to me.  However, this simple project was so delightful and it a great introduction for kids to learn how a compass works.  We will be trying this again soon.  Compass Painting is such a fun and playful way to combine math and art!

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Make sure to stop by Growing A Jeweled Rose and see how they created Solar Crayon Art!

Solar Crayon Art

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Don’t miss out on any of our Paint and Play series:

Balloon Painting 5 Ways and Super Creative Balloon Painting

Homemade Spin Art Machine and A Spin on Spin Art

Tire Swing Pendulum Painting and Glowing Pendulum Painting 

Painting with Candy and Painting with Candy

Glowing Ice Painting and Summer SCENTsory Ice Paints

Marble Maze Painting and  Ice Marble Painting Activity

Touch Painting and Touch Painting

Soap Free Bubble Prints and  Glowing Bubbles

Make sure you stop back in next week for more Paint and Play!

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Circle Painting made easy ~ simple preschool art

These simple Circle Prints are perfect for creating with your toddler.

If you love process art like us, then check out my Painting Without Brushes Pinterest board.  It is packed full of fun ideas.

Posted in Kid Art and tagged Kid Art, Math, Paint and Play, Painting, Watercolors.

Welcome to Housing A Forest!
I would love for you to grab a cup of coffee and stay a while. You can read more about us or catch up on our favorite experiments, projects + art activities.

Related posts:

  1. Double Brush Painting
  2. Glowing Ice Painting
  3. Glow Stick Ice Painting
  4. Touch Painting
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22 thoughts on “Compass Painting”

  1. katepickle on August 14, 2013 at 6:48 pm said:

    Oh so cool!
    we recently got our hands on a compass and had fun drawing and experimenting with it (and other measuring/drawing tools) but I had never thought to paint with it!!!

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 11:01 pm said:

      So fun Kate, I love the idea of using math “tools” for playing alongside learning.

      Reply ↓
  2. OneMommy on August 15, 2013 at 7:11 am said:

    I love this! What a great use for those old compasses I know I have packed away!

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 11:02 pm said:

      I need to get my hands on a few more! Love it!

      Reply ↓
  3. cassi on August 16, 2013 at 1:16 am said:

    These would make beautiful gift wrap!

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 10:43 pm said:

      I love that idea! It would be beautiful.

      Reply ↓
  4. Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest on August 16, 2013 at 11:47 am said:

    This is so cool! The finished product looks amazing and the process is so fun. Thanks for the great idea!

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 11:03 pm said:

      Thanks Ann, I would totally agree all the bright circles are beautiful!

      Reply ↓
  5. Deborah on August 16, 2013 at 7:07 pm said:

    This idea is awesome!

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 10:17 pm said:

      Thanks Deborah! We had so much fun creating all the circles:)

      Reply ↓
  6. Lori on August 16, 2013 at 9:19 pm said:

    Where can I find a compass similar to the one you have pictured?

    Reply ↓
    • Tammy on August 18, 2013 at 10:19 pm said:

      We bought our compass at our local office store a few years ago, sorry I can’t remember which one.

      Reply ↓
  7. Tracy on August 17, 2013 at 10:47 pm said:

    This is such a great idea, my son will love it! I’d love to have you share this or any of your amazing posts at our weekly Super Saturday Link Party. It starts Friday’s at 6pm, hope we see you there!
    Tracy

    Reply ↓
  8. Cassi on September 4, 2013 at 3:27 pm said:

    Wonderful and fun idea! I’ll be featuring it on The Crafty Crow!

    Reply ↓
  9. Magic and Mayhem on September 5, 2013 at 11:00 pm said:

    What a brilliant, simple, wonderful idea! I love this. We love playing with math toys and we love art, so this is the perfect marriage of the two. 🙂 Passing it on!
    ~Alicia

    Reply ↓
  10. Cindy deRosier on September 6, 2013 at 12:04 pm said:

    I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your compass painting project! Thanks for a fun and unique project idea!

    Reply ↓
    • elsa on December 29, 2013 at 6:24 pm said:

      Sorry, but where is compass here? I can see calipers, but compass?? :/

      Reply ↓
  11. annie on January 23, 2014 at 2:13 am said:

    For those of you wondering about compasses you can find the plastic ones at Amazon.com

    Reply ↓
  12. Counter of Kitchen on February 15, 2014 at 10:21 pm said:

    simple, but wonderful idea! I love this

    Reply ↓
  13. Jeanine on April 1, 2014 at 8:59 am said:

    Awesome! My youngest is really not into ‘painting’ these days…I really think your series will come in handy. And my teens math tools 😀 Thanks SOO much for sharing these creative helpful creations! I needed the inspiration, I had all but given up til now!!! THANKS AGAIN! I have Pinned this and more projects (but noticed you don’t have a Pin It widget?) Happy Spring time

    Reply ↓
  14. Sarah on November 4, 2014 at 1:35 pm said:

    What a great idea, Tammy. I will definitely be sharing this on K12’s Pinterest page in the hopes that other parents and students will paint with compasses!

    Reply ↓
  15. Angie McFarren on October 21, 2015 at 2:37 pm said:

    Wonderful idea! I never thought to paint with a compass.

    Reply ↓

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