#MAKING TESSELLATIONS HOW TO#
#MAKING TESSELLATIONS INSTALL#
#MAKING TESSELLATIONS SOFTWARE#
#MAKING TESSELLATIONS FREE#

Your kids should (and will!) use their creativity here and create their own unique houses or shops.Ĭolor the houses with crayons, in any color scheme you like. I gave all my houses the same scalloped roof line, but added variety in the shapes and number of windows. Now, draw embellishments to make the shapes look more like houses. Fill the paper completely, including any partial shapes around the edges. Carefully line-up the stencil side-by-side with each traced shape and continue adding houses.Ĭontinue to trace the tessellating stencil, making rows above and below the center row. Then, I fill-in on both sides of the first shape to complete the row. I like to start tracing near the center of the paper. Now, trace the tessellation stencil on a large piece of drawing paper. Cut it out, and then tape the roof piece to the top. Draw a roof shape on the bottom part of the rectangle. Start with a rectangle of sturdy paper, such as card stock or an index card.

I love the rows of little houses all nestled together. So cute! Instructions:įirst, make a stencil that can be traced repeatedly, with no spaces or gaps between the shapes. Don’t worry – these tessellating houses are a perfect beginner project!įor this mathematical art project, the tessellated house shape is translated, or slid, across the paper and traced repeatedly. My kids love exploring this art form!Ī tessellation is an arrangement of repeated shapes, without gaps or overlapping. Tessellations can be very complex and intricate, with shapes that are flipped or rotated to create a pattern. Escher’s artwork featuring these interlocking shapes and patterns. (Artists and mathematicians also call this 'tiling'.) Notice that the center button then reads 'edit': clicking on it returns you to the menu for editing your tile's shape.Tessellations are an intriguing combination of math and art.

I used the mouse to move the corners and add new corners to the starting 'tile' (the hexagon in screenshot 1).Ĭlick on the center button, 'Tessellate', to see your single 'tile' reproduced in three colors all over the page. This is what the screen looks like when you start. Like the Chinese food served in American restaurants, it's entertaining but half an hour afterward you'll be wanting something more substantial. How do we rate this program? It's intuitive & easy to start creating immediately,īut lacks almost every basic drawing tool, editing and file-saving feature, & advanced tessellation feature.

#MAKING TESSELLATIONS HOW TO#

The help menu is nonexistent, although there's a very nice picture-filled tutorial about how to make a screenshot of your work to edit or save in another program such as Windows' 'Paint'. There is no 'undo' button except 'reset', but 'reset' brings you all the way back to a fresh beginning. You cannot even make curved lines, although you can 'break' an existing line into joined straight segments (essentially creating a new corner). In this way you can add new corners, move the whole tile, drag corners around the page, and drag the entire tile around the page.Īll lines are black, and there is no way to adjust the line width or its color, nor to draw interior lines like eyes, mouth, fish scales, fur, and so on. You click on the 'edit edges' or 'edit corner' buttons on the right side of the screen, then click-and-drag the outline of your tile with your mouse. You start with one of three basic 'tile' shapes: square, triangle, or hexagon.

#MAKING TESSELLATIONS SOFTWARE#

That makes this software easy to learn, yes, but after using it once or thrice you may wish for more. If that doesn't work, then perhaps you need to adjust the security level for your Internet browsing, or tell your web browser (e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera) to turn on 'scripting languages' like JavaScript, Java, and Flash. If installing Java doesn't make this run, then you might need to shut off your web browser and restart it.

#MAKING TESSELLATIONS INSTALL#

It's like Flash or JavaScript.) You can find and install it at.

#MAKING TESSELLATIONS FREE#

(Java is a free engine that makes other programs work. This is particularly true if you see a small jigsaw puzzle piece and the words 'plugin required'. If you don't see a screen like the one pictured on the right side of my page, then perhaps you need to install Java. No installation is necessary, beyond having a functional web browser, Internet connection, and Java. Just click on this link to their web page. Page which gives us an amaaaazing one hundred and eleven activities, student evaluation tools, and lesson plans for 'tessellation'. This tessellation engine and their search what a treasure chest it is!įor us, 's main pages of interest are It has lesson plans, activity plans, teaching tools.

How to Make an Asian Chop (stone stamp)įree easy-to-use online Java-based program.Īlso available on a CD, if you donate to Shodor.

Making tessellations