Tessellations - MC Escher

For this lesson, i turned completely to you tube videos. The kids love it and then I don’t have to worry about getting my thoughts in sequential order. Video links are available at the bottom of post. I taught this lesson to both 3rd grade and 6th grade. Although I explained how to make your own tessellation to both grades, I only allowed the 6th graders to try on their first piece. This proved to be a wise choice as it was still challenging to grasp the concept and design a successful tessellation.

I made a class set of traceable tessellations by cutting out the “bird” from two pieces of file folder that I glued together. After cutting they all needed a little trim to make them fit better. The thickness of the paper made them more durable but also more challenging to cut out perfectly. I explained to the students they may need to make some adjustments when tracing, for example they don’t need to trace around the bird every time as part of the bird will already be drawn from the previous tracing.