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ACTIVITY 2014
PO Box 13409 Anderson, SC 29624

No. 15664

Tessellations Mosaics
Inspired by Pattern Blocks, we've created 6 shapes that can These patterns are intended
be used to make wonderful tessellation patterns. Shapes are: to teach students how to put the
equilateral triangle, rhombus, trapezoid, hexagon, square and mosaics together. They are meant
small rhombus. Each shape is carefully crafted to match the as a guide to understand how the
sides and angles of the other shapes allowing your students to edges and angles of the shapes
use the shapes to create seamless tessellations or to design can be matched. Some of the
animals, people, vehicles, structures and patterns! patterns can be replicated to
Unlike Pattern Blocks, which have specific colors for specific make regular tessellations. These
shapes, our tessellations mosaics come in a range of 12 bright, patterns can be tiled together to
glossy, double-sided colors. Your students can make patterns make even larger and more
with similar colors or challenge themselves by creating patterns impressive patterns. Ask children
in different colors. Get students acquainted with the different to cut their patterns and arrange
shapes and talk about their characteristics by giving each group one big tessellation on a bulletin
a bowlful of the Tessellations Mosaics. Ask students to sort the board.
mosaics only according to color. They must choose one color To add more value to your Tessellations Mosaics pack, go
and find all the shapes in that color. Note: Make sure to point online to download our amazing patterns featuring
out that the mosaics are double-sided! kaleidoscope-like designs
Once all the shapes are found, ask and fun animals! Go to
students to describe each shape to you. www.Roylco.com/product/1
What do the shapes look like? For 5664 and click on the
instance, some children may say the 'Artwork' link to access the
trapezoid reminds them of a roof. Once resources in printable PDFs.
your students get a chance to share their Fill in the designs with the
opinions on the shapes, discuss the Tessellations Mosaics! Draw
characteristics of the shapes. We've thematic backgrounds, such
included a short description of each of as an ocean, the plains or a
the shapes later on in this guide. jungle onto the animal
Now comes the fun partputting puzzle cards!
the Tessellations Mosaics together!
Pull out the provided pattern sheets CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
and photocopy each set. Keep the Discover symmetry and tessellations
original sheets safe for future use.
There are 2 patterns on each sheet. Develop fine motor skills
Print as many sheets as required for Create gorgeous, bright math patterns
your class. You can provide the entire Learn about complementary and contrasting colors
sheet with both patterns to students Define properties of shapes and angles
or cut the sheets and hand out one pattern each.
Learn to create patterns with adjoining shapes
Fill in the puzzles with the
shapes shown in the outlines. Sort the Tessellations Mosaics by color or shape
Before students fill in their Use the Tessellations Mosaics patterns as wall
patterns with the mosaics, decorations or as backgrounds for All About Me materials
encourage them to experiment Discover tessellations history
with colors. For their first Learn about important historical figures such as M.C.
pattern, students can make the Escher or Johannes Kepler
shapes match all in one color.
Once they get comfortable with
arranging the Tessellations Mosaics onto the pattern sheet, they The word tessellation comes from the Latin tessella which
can switch out different colors for the same shapes. For means to tile. As a result, tessellations can be thought of as
instance, instead of filling a pattern sheet with Tessellations tiles that fit on a floor. Have a look at tiled floors to see how
Mosaics all in red, students can switch out some of the red the patterns repeat seamlessly. There should be no gaps
shapes for the same shapes in blue. between the patterned images. These are tessellations!
Make new patterns with these color arrangements! After all Sometimes the pattern image can be rotated or mirrored.
the students have arranged and glued down their mosaics, Tessellation tiles appeared in ancient times on temple or villa
compare the patterns to see how different color combinations walls in Sumeria (known as Babylon), Egypt, Greece, Japan,
change how the patterns look. North Africa, Persia, Rome and Arabia. Archaeologists
Printed in Canada
Made in Canada
No. 15664
Tessellations Mosaics
uncovered tessellation patterns in the ruins of ancient cities that
date back to 4000 B.C.! These patterns usually looked like
geometric shapes that fit together in continuous patterns
without any gaps. In addition, the walls could be adorned with
images of animals, plants and cultural symbols.
Johannes Kepler was a famous mathematician who lived in
the 1600s. He discovered that the Earth revolves around the sun
in an elliptical (oval) orbit. In addition, Kepler came up with the
first rules about tessellations. He wrote mathematical
descriptions on how certain shapes like the honeycomb are able
to match sides seamlessly together.
One of the most famous artists to experiment with
tessellations was a Dutch man named Maurits Cornelis (M.C.)
Escher. Escher was an artistic genius who drew illusions as
realistic images. A famous example of one of his paintings is the
"Drawing Hands," drawn in 1948, that depicts the hand of the
artist holding a pencil over a sheet of paper. On the sheet of
paper, the artist's hand is drawing a hand on a paper. The hand
in the illustration is likewise holding a pencil and seeming to
"draw" the hand of the actual artist.
M.C. Escher was fond of illusions like this and created more
than 2000 drawings that depicted different kinds of illusions or
focused on the realism of everyday objects and scenes. In
addition, Escher made tessellations. His tessellations often used
patterns of animals such as birds. The famous Sky & Water I
woodcut shows images of birds in flight. They are all pointing to
the right and are flying parallel to each other in columns. Parallel
is a term that means two objects are in the exact same position
at an equal distance from each other. The spaces around the
birds are filled with white. As you look further down the
woodcut, you begin to see the birds become less and less
detailed and gradually, they turn into silhouettes. The white parts
of the drawing begin to emerge in greater detail and suddenly
appear as fish! Escher cleverly fit the fish into the spaces
surrounding the birds and as a result, the images seem to go on
in a never-ending pattern! Escher made 448 woodcuts and
lithographs. Both art mediums were used to create prints of
much of his artwork.
Before we proceed to the next section we first have to talk
about some important terms that you can use to describe
tessellations. If you take a tessellation apart, you will see that
one shape in the tessellation will have definite points and edges.
A polygon has definite points and edges. Polygon is a word
used in geometry to describe special types of geometric shapes.
In Escher's tessellation called Sky & Water I the polygons
are formed between the images of the birds and the fish. The
illustrations mimic the appearance of a regular rhombus, like the
one in the Tessellations Mosaics set! Look at the topmost point
of the birds' wings and the fishes' fins. The bottom most point is
formed by the birds' chests and the fishes' fins. On the right
side, the point is formed by the birds' beaks and the fishes' lips.
On the opposite side, the left point is formed by the birds'
tails and the fishes' tails. Put a dot beside each of these points,
and then draw a line between the points to see the regular
rhombus!
The points on a tessellation are called vertices. A vertex is a
point where two sides of a shape meet
to form a corner.
This corner forms an angle or a
measure of how close or far apart the
two sides are. The angle of a point
whose two sides are almost touching is
..../2
Right Angle Obtuse Angle Acute Angle
a very small or acute angle. The angle of a point whose sides
form the corner of a square is called a right angle.
All angles can be measured in degrees. A protractor is a
special tool for measuring angles and can show you how large
or small an angle is based on the number of degrees it has. A
right angle always has 90 degrees. Anything less than that is
called acute while anything over 90 degrees is called obtuse.
In tessellations, all of the points or angles of the images have
to match each other to make a seamless pattern.
To make a tessellation, there are 3 important rules:
1. There should be no gaps between the shapes or figures.
2. All the tessellations must be regular polygons. This
means that the tessellation must have some sort of geometric
shape to them.
3. All vertices must be the same. As mentioned before, the
vertices or points of the tessellations should all have the same
angles to match into one another.
Here are some features of the Tessellations Mosaics
shapes:
Equilateral triangle: Equil- is a prefix used to describe a
shape that has an equal number. Lateral is a word that
describes the lines or sides in a shape. This particular triangle
has an equal length for all its 3 sides. Go ahead and measure
one of the equilateral triangles in the Tessellations Mosaics kit!
Rhombus: If you turn a rhombus onto one of its corners, it
looks like a diamond. It has four sides that make the shape of a
parallelogram! A parallelogram has four sides of equal length,
and looks a bit like a slanted square.
Trapezoid: A trapezoid has two parallel sides or lines that
follow the same direction but are an equal distance away from
each other. This is the shape that looks a bit like a flat roof! On
either side of the parallel lines are slanted lines that join the
two parallel lines together. These slanted lines should share the
same angle on both sides.
Hexagon: Hex in Greek means six, so that means this
shape has six sides! Go ahead and count them! One side of
this shape can fit against a side of the equilateral triangle, the
rhombus and more.
Square: A square is a parallelogram which means that it
has four equal sides. If you turn the square onto one of its
corners it becomes a kind of rhombus! The square is a basic
shape that can fit against most sides of other shapes.
Small Rhombus: The small rhombus is a very skinny
version of the regular rhombus. Its angles are more acute than
the regular rhombus.
Don't hesitatetessellate! We've got a load of fun animal
designs you can make from the Tessellations Mosaics. Print out
the artwork onto photocopy paper and arrange the
Tessellations Mosaics onto the paper. Use the outlines within
2014
No. 15664
Tessellations Mosaics
the design as clues to what
kinds of shapes you'll use to
fill in the designs.
The shapes and sizes of
our Tessellations Mosaic are
similar to traditional Pattern
Blocks but in different colors.
You can use your Pattern
Blocks resources with our
mosaics.
Our Tessellations Mosaics are capable of presenting you
with the same educational value as Pattern Blocks but are more
plentiful to allow your entire class to benefit from the experience
of putting them together. These mosaics help to build critical
thinking skills and allow students to explore the properties of
geometric shapes. Using the Tessellations Mosaics, you can
explore a variety of puzzle-solving exercises below or come up
with your own!
Fill in the Shapes: Give students one mosaic shape each
from the Tessellations Mosaics pack. With the remaining
mosaics, fill up bowls and distribute to the groups. Ask your
students the following questions to get them thinking about
their specific shape:
Triangle: How many triangles can fit into a
rhombus/hexagon/trapezoid?
Trapezoid: How many trapezoids can fit into a hexagon?
Rhombus: How many rhombuses can fit into a hexagon?
Alternatively, try to fit as many different shapes into a
hexagon or trapezoid as possible. What combinations of shapes
did your students make?
Fractions: Fractions are the parts that make up one whole
thing. For instance, one slice of pie is one part of a whole pie. If
all the parts can be divided up into equal sections or equal
slices, this means that the parts are fractions of the whole pie.
With the previous activity, you put together mosaics to make the
whole shape. Let's say you could fit two triangles into a
rhombus. Since there are only two triangles needed to fit into
..../3
the rhombus shape, there are only two parts or two halves
needed to make up the whole rhombus. If you held up one of
the triangles, the triangle would be labeled as one-half of the
rhombus. Ask your students to come up with similar fractions
for each of the shapes they made in the previous activity. If a
whole shape has 3 smaller shapes in it, one of the smaller
shapes would be labeled one-third of the whole shape.
Describe all the smaller shapes in this way.
USE TESSELLATIONS MOSIACS WITH THESE PRODUCTS:
Make a coat of arms! Use the Tessellations Mosaics to
design a pattern. Paste the pattern onto the R52106 Super Value
Design-A-Crest. Display your students' artwork on a classroom
wall or as part of a historical art mural.
Make one of the animal tessellations provided online.
Paste the completed pattern onto a card sheet.
Cut around the outside edge of the animal tessellation. Flip
the card sheet over to the blank side.
Give your students more Tessellations
Mosaics to fill in the other side.
Challenge students in older grades to
not look at the opposite side of the
cutout to match the arrangement, but
instead come up with a new one!
Once students are satisfied with their new pattern, they
can paste it down to the back of the cutout. Punch a hole
through the top of the cutout and attach some string to it. Tie
the other end of the string to our R51302 Nature Mobile Maker
to make a Tessellations Mosaics mobile!
Visit us at LittleFingersBigArt.com for more crafty ideas!
Make a gorgeous classroom
mural! Use the R15664 Tessellations
Mosaics and the assortment of colors
and shapes to fill up a whole canvas
with color! Visit our Big Ideas page
on our blog Little Fingers Big Art for
instructions on how to make the
colorful classroom mural! Our blog
features step-by-step vivid color
photography to help you get the best
value from your crafting experience.
Visit the Big Ideas: Colorful
Classroom Mosaics page at
http://littlefingersbigart.com/2013/04/26/big-ideas-colorful-
classroom-mosaics/.
2014