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| Each fall, 8th grade starts with projects inspired by M.C. Escher. These include simple translation tessellations, mosaic drawings, and hexagon kaleidoscope designs. |
Hexagon Kaleidoscopes begin with an equilateral triangle,
double into a rhombus, traced into a small hexagon, then are
copied 3 times for the large hexagon, and are totally awesome!
M.C. Escher created what he called "mosaics" by beginning with a
creature in the middle of the page, then looking around the edge and
"growing" other creatures or objects from there, fitting them like a puzzle.
This is a challenging assignment, getting the students to really
look and use their imaginations, but the results can be fabulous!
I encourage students to shade or blend their colors to give
their tessellations a bit of depth and interest. It is fun to see
what kinds of creatures they come up with as well!
Students can finish their mosaics with pencil shading,
multiple colors, or 1 to 3 colors and their values.
Needless to say, "We love M.C. Escher!"
