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Summary and Objective
Students will understand that certain angle measures can tessellate and certain ones can’t tessellate. They will create their own pattern pieces out of fabric-like paper using shapes that tessellate.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Launch: Ask students to think about what keeps them warm at night. Where did your bed-cover come from? (Some students may have hand-made quilts on their bed, others may not – take a range of responses.) Give a brief history of American textiles and the “awakening” of quilting in North America (use America’s Beautiful Quilts by Zaro Weil as a secondary resource pp.10-16). In the late 18th century and early 19th century, there were only a few acceptable occupations for women and one of them was needlework.
Step 2.
Show examples of quilts from the 19th century. Use a range of quilts BUT the focus will quickly move to geometric quilts. Some of the quilts I plan on showing (I’d like to enlarge them and tape or laminate them on oak tag) are: “Spools” p.90, “Log Cabin” p.100, “Primitive Schoolhouses” p.102, “Patch on Point” p.129, “Seven Sisters” p.137, “Shoo-fly” p.226. Two other examples are attached to this lesson – Mosaic Quilt and Rising Star Quilt.
Step 3.
What do you notice about the quilt designs? (Look for comments about the kinds of shapes) Define the word “Tessellate” – Cover a surface by the repeated use of a single shape, with no gaps or overlap. “Do you see any quilts in which shapes were used that tessellate? That don’t tessellate?”
Step 4.
Make predictions about which shapes will tessellate and which ones won’t. (Shapes that tessellate need to have an angle measure that is a factor of 360 degrees.) Make a list of the reasons/predictions why one shape might tessellate and another might not.
Step 5.
Experiment with different shapes. Trace shapes by repeating each shape around a point – make sure there is no space or overlap of the shapes.
Step 6.
Choose a shape or two and a piece of paper. Create a pattern.
Step 7.
Make a quilt design with pattern piece and paper.
Step 8.
Whole group share: students share their patterns. They can discuss which shapes they tried that did not tessellate and which ones did tessellate. What pattern did they notice (factor of 360) within the shapes? Finally, refer back to the quilts from the introduction – can the students find the shapes they used in their patterns in the quilts made in the late 19th century?
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