Cool Tessellations: Creative Activities That Make Math & Science Fun for Kids!

Cool Art with Math & Science

by Anders Hanson, Elissa Mann

Discover secret math and science tricks to creating art! This title introduces young readers to the sciences, with a creative twist. Math and science educational pages are interspersed with cool tessellation activities that offer practical applications of the information students learn in class. All activities include how-to photos, easy instructions, and clear explanations. Reinforce Common Core Standards in reading, math, and science, while making cool art projects, from translational symmetry to Archimedean solids. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Darlene Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tessellations are introduced via a honeycomb and illustrations offer LOTS of other examples. A two page intro to polygons and geometry terms set the baseline, but it is quick and more of a review than a lesson. Math Terms and Glossary at the back also help. The book consists of four hands-on projects to explore--simple regular and non-regular tessellations, those with translational symmetry, and 3-D tessellation art. The first instruction for each project often requires students of create a template. ("Draw an equilateral triangle on card stock. Each side should be 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) long.") That will stop many people for going further. A page of templates to copy would have been a great addition to the book.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has hands-on activities for the kids. It has a good explanation of tessellations and where you can find them in nature. What it needs is better explanations of the geometric shapes.

It just mentions several different geometric shapes and expects kids to know what they are. (dodecahedron, for example) The activities are good, but some seem repetitive.

I will probably get this for my classroom because the instructions for the activities are fairly easy to follow. But I still think it could have been done better.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, clear descriptions and directions. A fun and easy read.