Today we have a fun tessellation art activity for you. Simply put, tessellations are arrangements of shapes closely fitted together, in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping. Often, you'll see tessellation patterns made from polygons, but other shapes can fit together in tessellations too.
Here, we'll show you how to make your own tessellation template, so that your repeating pattern fits together. Watch our short video, or scroll down for a written explanation:
To create your own tessellation template, you will need:
a square of paper or card, roughly 10x10cm in size
a pair of scissors
some sticky tape
To create your template, start by cutting a shape from one side of your square, and sticking it to the opposite side. Optionally, you can repeat this with the other two sides of your square.
Now your template is ready, all your have to do is trace around it on a large sheet of drawing paper, to create your tessellation pattern. Finish off your artwork by colouring in the shapes.
Did you create your own tessellation template and pattern? We'd love to see it! Please feel free to tag us on Bluesky or Facebook, and use the hashtag #MathsWeekScot.
For the UK Wildlife Trusts annual 30 Days Wild challenge, which encourages people to spend more time outside and engage with nature, we've come up with 30 fun ideas to get you active in nature and incorporate some maths along the way (updated for 2025).
