I love M.C. Escher! I have a whole book on his work and love to share it with my students when we’re studying angle measurement.

That’s because we’re going to tie math and art together through modifying polygons similar to how M.C. Escher did it in some of his paintings. It’s all about tessellating shapes and angles.

Using pattern blocks, I show students how shapes tessellate. See photo below. Then, I have students determine the angle measurement of each of the pattern block angles. The key is understanding that there are 360 degrees in a circle.

From there, I show students how to take a 3″ x 3″ cardstock square and cut each side corner to corner, slide it to the other side and tape. We do that again on the other side to create our tessellating shapes. This results in a slide tessellation, the easiest of the two types of tessellations. (Using cardstock/tagboard makes it easier for students to trace.)

The second tessellation is a rotating tessellation. The example below shows how to have students cut and slide/rotate their pieces depending on the type of tessellation they want to create. The top photo is a slide tessellation. The one underneath is a rotating tessellation.

It’s not unusual for students to create two or three shapes to see which one they like best. They determine this by tessellating their shapes (tracing them) on paper. Some students add details just like M. Escher, while others simply color in the shapes. I’ve also done it using construction paper. See red and green tessellation at top.

These make a great bulletin board when the artwork is mounted on colored construction paper.

Common Core State Standards: 4.MD.5; 4.MD.7