This week I explored the Tessellations manipulative on the National Library site. At the end of each school year I expose my students to tessellations and assign a project in which they have to create their own original tessellation. This assignment always proves challenging for most of the students in my class. They are under the impression that a tessellation is the same thing as a picture or a pattern. They often leave gaps in their design and as a result, their design is not a tessellation. I like this manipulative because it gives students a way to, for lack of a better word, manipulate the shapes and see how they can fit together.
I would have found this manipulative more usefull if it started out by giving students a parial tessellation and asking them to continue the tessellation. This would be extremely helpful to my students who have trouble visualizing what a tessellation should look like. Once the students have done several tasks like this, it would be great if the tasks then turning into independent tasks such as: make a tesselation of triangles, etc. Overall, I find this manipulative beneficial and plan to use it with my kids, I just wished it provided more guidance.
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