Totally Cannot Take Credit for This

This is an amazing art and math lesson that I got from a teacher at a conference who did teach a district over from me, but is now getting her PhD. 
She always had amazing stuff to present at conference. (You're amazing, Mary Franco!)
Anyway, this lesson involves Paul Klee and multiplication.  I made a little three page Smart Notebook lesson about Klee's work "Once Emerged From the Gray of Night" (where I used to show a poster of it) and have the students talk about what's more important--the words of the poem or the colors and composition? Then we talk about putting two things (like writing and art, or math and art together).  It's SUCH an amazing lesson, here's a sneak peek:

So, students get a little background knowledge of Klee, then we talk about tessellations and multiplication (and practice on the Smart Board). Then, students get a page of one-inch graph paper and write out a one digit by one digit multiplication problem with a two digit answer.  I tell them to choose one that's hard for them to remember, or their favorite one.  They then repeat that problem seven times, dropping down and over one square for 4 times, then down and back a square for three times, making them into interlocking tessellation shapes:

After they've drawn it all out in pencil and I've checked it, they choose ONE color of fine-tip marker to trace it with, then use colored pencil or watercolor pencil to color.  The coloring is a bit of a challenge for them, because they need to forget that they're numbers and only look at the space.  They then color it in patterns/designs to make it visually interesting and play with people's minds ('math? I dont' see any math!')
It's an awesome lesson that really challenges their thinking.

This one really shows the patterns and designs.

Oh, it's also important that their numbers COMPLETELY
fill the one inch box of the graph paper.

I always try to do this lesson at a time of the year when classroom teachers are complaining about students not remembering their math facts.  I usually do it with fifth grade, but I did it with sixth one year at the teachers' request.