3rd Grade Tessellation

So I know that everyone does a tessellation lesson with their 3rd or 4th graders and although it is an important topic to cover it can easily become boring and repetitive.  My favorite way of approaching this is to include some Kandinsky inspiration along with the usual talk.  I begin this lesson by comparing and contrasting Kandinsky with Escher (both alive around the same time, living in different places, creating artwork that is different yet easily comparable).

After this discussion students create 10 of their very own 3" x 3" 2 sided tessellation templates from which they later choose 1 to create a full blown composition.  In the past I've resorted to giving students pre-made templates to pick from.  I find it much more gratifying for the students to create their own tessellation because everyones ends up being different and they are taken through the entire process rather than the focus primarily being on the final product.  Below are some examples of finished and in progress works.

The third graders have done some very impressive work this year!