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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Tessellation Interactivity

Age 7 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star
  • Interactive environment
  • Getting Started

Use the interactivity to investigate tessellations. You can also find the interactivity on our GeoGebra page.

To get started, click "show" to see the instructions, or watch our introductory video.

  • Choose a polygon from the toolbar at the top of the interactivity.
  • Click on any two points on the "canvas" to create your first polygon.
  • Select the arrow tool and move either of the two points to rotate and/or resize your polygon.
  • You can add more shapes by selecting a polygon tool and clicking any two points.
  • If you want your shapes to join together, click on existing points - the new shape is always drawn in an anti-clockwise direction from the first point you choose.
  • To delete a polygon or point, select the dustbin tool and click on the object to be deleted.
  • If you want to draw a polygon with more than 8 sides click on the octagon to access the rest of the available polygons.



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Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?

Sweets in a Box

How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same colour are next to each other in any direction?

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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