Tessellations are shapes that are designed to interlock with copies of themselves in various patterns. These geometric designs make very attractive artwork and decorations for your home. Although they may seem complex, even children can make them. The following is a simple method to make random shape tessellations that you can use in your classroom to illustrate tessellations to your students. Guide them through this project step by step, to make sure they perform it properly.
Instructions
1. Draw a horizontal line across a square sheet of paper. Start in the middle of the left side and draw a line to the right. Make the line random, jagged, curved or anything else you desire. It doesn't matter how complex or simple you get as long as you divide the sheet in two.
2. Make a random vertical line across the middle of the paper, running from the bottom to the stop. Draw all the way up to divide the paper into four random shapes.
3. Cut your shapes out with scissors by following the lines you have drawn. Erase any stray pencil marks on your shapes.
4. Put the piece together by placing the uncut sides next to each other. Arrange them so the corners of each piece meet. Tape the pieces together to create your basic tessellation shape.
5. Copy your tessellation in a copy machine as many times as you want. Cut out the tessellations from the sheet of paper and fit them together. They should fit together perfectly to create an interlocked pattern.
