![]() ![]() ![]() I generally read it through once and ask the students to talk about the relationship between what is happening on the left side of the page compared to the right. Read Tessalation! I’ve had success reading the book to younger children, but it is written for ages 5-8, with a rhyming meter created to mimic the feeling of locking pieces and patterns.Here’s how I introduce tessellations during my school visits to school-age children. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s a perfect way to harness children’s natural creative drive in a math learning setting. But school-age children are capable of having even more fun with pattern by making them themselves. I’ve written before about how to start talking about patterns and tessellations with children as young as pre-schoolers. How to introduce elementary school children to tessellations A tessellation is a great way to make math fun for kids. I’ve seen preschoolers identify tessellations out in the world (cutest thing ever, three-year-old’s saying: tessellation!), and I’ve seen the abundance of creativity that happens when school-age children make their own. In the months since, I’ve watched lots of children make their own tessellations. Later, based on this life-long love of pattern from that class, I would write my children’s picture book, Tessalation!, to offer the world a story to use in the classroom, a story about a little girl named Tessa who hides in the patterns of nature. All I knew was that it was fun to make interlocking patterns and to imagine them spreading in every direction across a plane. ![]() I didn’t even associate tessellations with math. So when a fourth grade gifted teacher introduced us to tessellations, I didn’t make a direct connection to math application. Here’s something I knew I was good at: Drawing. I struggled to do the timed multiplication and division worksheets in math class, and when I didn’t immediately get it, when I wasn’t the fastest, or the most confident, I was sure it wasn’t for me. By the time I was in 4 th grade, I had decided I was “bad at math.” Looking bath, I wasn’t really all that terrible at it, it just didn’t come as easily to me as other subjects. For some students, they might be just the right lesson to get students thinking about the practical applications and design possibilities of math. You can find the invention tessellation resource here.For math teachers and at-home educators looking to bring some creativity into the classroom, tessellations offer a lot of fun activities and possibilities. I had so much fun creating artistic tessellations with my kids that I created a simple “I” tessellation research project for inventions! A list of 50+ inventions is included that students can research and report on in a fun way. Reflection or Mirror Tessellation Use a Collaborative Tessellation for a Research Project There are some videos for making rotational and mirror tessellations on YouTube once your students have mastered the simpler translation tessellation: square piece of paper (a small sticky note works well).You can also create complex tessellations by combining multiple operations. Rotation tessellations are accomplished by (you guessed it!) rotating the tessellated shape. This is the type of tessellation you can make easily with a sticky note (as shown below). Translation can be thought of as sliding the shape along a plane. They can be made by positioning the same shape with one of these three operations: Tessellations are patterns resulting from arranging, or tiling, shapes without any gaps. Certain basic shapes can be easily tessellated:Ĭombination shapes, complicated shapes, and animals such as the ones found on these sites are also examples to print and color: Tessellations are a fun, hands-on way to explore STEAM, whether you are in art class, math class, or in a STEM or STEAM classroom. ![]()
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