How to Make Fish Tessellations with Sticky Notes

This week we’re excited to talk about tessellations! We’re always looking for fun creative projects that use simple supplies and hide learning in the fun. And tessellations totally deliver by rolling math into a creative coloring project. This post gives you the easy-to-follow instructions for a fish tessellation which is just one of many animal tessellations out there. Design your own fish tessellation with sticky notes or color the tessellation we created for you!

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What is a Tessellation?

A tessellation is the tiling of a flat surface with a repeating pattern with no overlapping or gaps. The word tessellations in Latin actually means small cube. These small cubes were used in floors and tilings in Roman buildings many moons ago. Typically tessellations are formed into animals or other life forms. In this activity, the overlapping pattern is a fish, but it can be shaped like anything! You can find tessellations in brick walls, architecture, and the art of M.C. Escher. They can also be spotted in nature in fish scales, pineapples, and bee honeycombs.

Can you spot a tessellation where you live?

Fish Tessellation Supplies

We love this tessellation project because it uses only basic supplies. If you don’t have square sticky notes, you can always cut a 3″x3″ square piece of paper instead.

• 3″x3″ square sticky notes
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Tape
• Paper
• Colored pencils or markers

For a quick creative activity without the post-it notes, you can get our fish tessellation coloring page below. It also includes easy-to-print instructions for the post-it note tessellation too.

 

How to Make a Fish Tessellation Coloring Page

To make it easier, we’ve put together a helpful video for you!

1. Fold the note: Fold one sticky note in half horizontally and in half vertically. Open the vertical fold. For the next steps, always keep the horizontal fold towards the bottom.

2. Cut the tail of the fish: Make a mark along the horizontal fold line halfway between the center of the note and the side of the note. Cut from the mark to the top right corner.

3. Make the head of the fish: Open up the note and tape the part you cut out in step 2 to the left side of the note. This is now the head of the fish.

4. Make the body of the fish: A) Fold the note in half horizontally again. Make a mark at the halfway point of the vertical fold line. B) Cut from the mark to the top left corner and from the mark to the top right corner of the note.

5. Make a fish tessellation coloring page: Now take the sticky note fish and trace around it on a blank sheet of paper with a pencil. Align the fish again along one of the edges of the traced fish and trace again. Repeat until the page is filled. Outline with black marker (erasing the pencil lines) and color if desired.

How to Make a Tessellation Your Own

These fish tessellations are easy to make your own! Simply adjust the placement of the cuts and marks to create your own fish design or some other type of shape tessellation.

More Fun Water STEAM Activities

Like a fish to water… We have so many great water-themed projects for you to try on Left Brain Craft Brain! Here are a few of my favorites.

How to Make Edible Water Bubbles

Hidden Rainbow Unicorn Bath Bomb

Come explore our water-filled world with STEAM Explorers! Kids will love learning about our how submarines dive, angler fish glow, water makes music, and more though hands-on science, tech, engineering, art, and math projects. Delicious recipes that teach about science while you snack. Printables perfect for home or school that get kids thinking about what makes animals special. Pages to read that help kids understand the watery world around us and get inspired by STEM careers that work with water. And as always, lots of fun stuff like color by coding, word searches, seek and finds, and more.