Tessellations

I have always been very afraid of tessellations, but now I realize that was just silly. I gave students a square, and had them cut a small shape out of the right side, then tape it on the left. Do the same thing with the top and bottom. Then watch them go! I had to guide a couple towards finding a shape, and we will just say that some kids had some crazy abstract shapes, but all in all, I was pleased with the results. Here are a few of my favorites.

Wayne Thiebaud, Again!

My wonderful student teacher Kelly did this cupcake collage with second graders last semester. They had a great time cutting and gluing, and some turned out really nice!

Kandinsky Kards

I cannot take credit for this lesson, it belongs to a practicum teacher that I had last semester, Lauren Goodwin. She led 4th grade through Kandinsky's work with a wonderful powerpoint, then gave them 5 in x 7 in watercolor paper, which she pre-taped. They chose their background color, then they started with the abstract lines and designs. She had a box with paper strips. One set of strips had numbers 1-5, while the other set had everything like circle, square, wavy line, ect. She had students draw strips out of the box, for example, 3 squares, then they drew this on their paper using Sharpie markers. This was so simple but a great activity that was enjoyed by all.