Our latest papier-mâché project. Good art/maths exercise. Tessellations and Hexagons. The two words and the associated properties will be imprinted in your child’s memory for ever after decorating this tortoise shell! Much more effective than exercises in a text book or even just drawing tessellating patterns. Why do we have separate Maths lessons? Or separate Science lessons? Why not just more Art and Craft which kids love anyway? Then introduce the maths and science through art? In fact why not get rid of ALL the subjects in primary schools and teach everything through hands on creative activities. All forms of writing, history, geography ... can be learnt from art and craft activities. Makes sense to me! Anyway, back to tessellations! You see them everywhere. Tiled floors and walls. Bricks in a wall. Quilted bedspreads. Religious designs. Tessellations are a set of 2D shapes which fit together perfectly without any gaps. They’ve been with us for a long time. The Latin word ‘tessella’ means little square and the patterns were found and studied as early as the 1600’s. M.C.Escher, a famous artist, was fascinated by the patterns in ancient cultures and began using tessellations in his work. Well, a tortoise shell is tessellated with hexagons. As you can see from the pics here they will fit together exactly without gaps. But art does allow creativity so it’s ok to leave gaps if the contrast of the bright shapes against the black background looks good. Children will also learn that it’s very difficult, in fact nearly impossible to keep to strict regular sized hexagons on something the shape of a tortoise shell. So top marks to nature who manages to do it beautifully! #tessellation #primarymaths #mathsart #hexagon #shapeprojectsmitaash #papiermache #papiermachemagazine #artcraft @primaryeducation @classroom_skills @primaryteaching88 #primaryteachers #teachmaths #ukcurriculum @educationweek #tortoise #tortoiseshell #funcrafts #craftsforkids
