Do-It-Yourself Tessellation Project:   Easy Paper+Pencil Slide Parallelogram Method

Click on the pictures to see larger versions with better explanations.

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A parallelogram is a 4-sided figure. In a parallelogram, opposite sides and opposite angles are equal sizes (congruent), and opposite sides are parallel.

A translation tessellation, also called a slide translation, gets its symmetry by simply sssssliding the outline of one edge along to a new position on the opposite side of the tile, without turning the edge or flipping it over.

This project works with any rhomboid. In it, you can make a tessellation that has translational (slide) symmetry. In the Heesch way of describing tessellations, the kind of tessellation we'll make in this project is called TTTT because in the tile outlines, the top and bottom edges look the same, and the left and right sides also look the same as one another.

Teachers: It's probably best to go through one with the entire class watching, then give each student a print-out of the lesson & let them work alone-- with you wandering around giving person-to-person assistance & encouragement.

Do you want to download printable, freely shareable Adobe Acrobat (*.PDF) or JPEG (*.JPG) versions of this complete tutorial?
One at a time, right-click on the two PDF icons or the two JPG icons on the line below and choose "save target" from the pop-up menu.

Adobe Acrobat PDF File page 1 of 2 (2.5mb) Adobe Acrobat PDF File page 2 of 2 (2.5mb) JPEG File page 1 of 2 (104kb) JPEG File page 2 of 2 (130kb)

Page 1: Tools Page 2: Two Sheets of Tracing Paper Page 3: Label the Paper Page 4: Draw a Rectangle
1. Tools 2. Tracing paper 3. Label the pages A, B, C 4. Draw a rectangle
Page 5: Trace that Rectangle Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 4: Draw a Rectangle
5. Trace that rectangle 6. Trace many onto C 7. Draw a weird line here.
Don't copy my line! Be different!
8. Trace it twice on B
and one more on A
Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 1: Tools Page 2: Two Sheets of Tracing Paper
9. Reality check 10. Draw a weird line here.
Don't copy my line! Be different!
11. Trace it twice on B
and then at the top of A
12. Imagination Time!
It looks like...what?
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytes
Page 3: Label the Paper Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 4: Draw a Rectangle Page 16: Decorate it. It's finished!
13.Choose a theme 14. Tweak the shape
Top=Bottom,Left=Right!
15. Trace it onto C
many many times
16. Erase the rectangles. Decorate it. You did it!
It's finished !