Tessellation Time! Where math meets art!

 My 3rd-grade gifted learners have been exploring the mind-bending world of Dutch artist M.C. Escher! We began our journey by looking at how Escher turned geometric shapes into interlocking, artistic wonders—tessellations. A tessellation is a pattern of shapes that fit together perfectly with no gaps and no overlaps. If your student comes home using some BIG math words that are unfamiliar to you...ask them to be the teacher and explain what they know. It is amazing what they can soak in!

Beyond the Box: How 3rd Grade Imaginations Took Flight

I gave my 3rd graders a challenge: take an ordinary cardboard box and turn it into something extraordinary. I expected boats or maybe fort walls. What I got was pure, unbridled imagination!

Watching my gifted students work was like watching engineers, artists, and storytellers all at once. They didn’t just see cardboard; they saw a gymnastics studio, gingerbread bird house, factory with Amazon conveyor belt, McDonald's happy  meal, golf course, cat castle, etc.

One student told me, "It's not a box anymore, it's a doorway."

When we give gifted minds a blank slate and the freedom to fail (and rebuild), they don't just "do the assignment." They recreate the world. I am constantly amazed by their ability to see the "what if" in the "what is."