Learning About Tessellations and Adding Value to Drawings

M.C Escher is one cool dude and his artwork always amazes students. What's even more exciting for them is to make artwork that is similar to his style. For lower elementary students, that involves making a tessellation.

Students began by talking specifically about tessellations and how each piece fits together so that there is no space in between that is not a part of the design. The kids caught on quick. We even talked about tessellations that can be found in nature to help students connect what they're learning with something they already know. We talked about the different ways to move shapes so that they would fit together perfectly. Shapes can either slide, flip or turn. Then we learned all about M.C. Escher. We spent time looking at his life and a lot of his artwork. I used this video to do that.

Students then set to work using animal tracers that were meant to make tessellations. The students were challenged to work through how the animal fit together by moving the tracer around on the page and trying different ways until they got it right. They had a lot of success with this and were excited when they mastered their tracer. After they filled their page with a  tessellation, the students traced over their pencil line with a marker and then erased their pencil lines.

 

On the second day, I did a demo on how to create value with crayon. We discussed how to make light, medium and dark values with the same crayon just by how hard you pressed down when coloring. Each student was to select one color and 'shade' or create light, medium and dark values on their tessellations. Everyone was very excited about the 3-D effect that this gave their artwork.

Also a little update on one of my side projects. I finished my dragon drawing! Take a look at that beauty!