Creating Tesselations Using ClarisWorks
Highland Park Elementary School
If you would like to create computer-generated tesselations resembling the ones created by our fourth graders, here's how. All you need is ClarisWorks. Ours were created using 4.0, but earlier versions of ClarisWorks will work just fine.
2. Increase screen size to 200% with the large mountain icon in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
3. From the toolbox, select the polygon tool
4. Near the center of your page, place the crosshair in the upper left-hand corner of one of the grid squares and click once to "drop an anchor".
5. Draw an interesting angled line down to the bottom left corner, clicking once as you make each angle. Don't make the angles and line too long. Keep it simple.
6. Double-click when you reach the bottom left-hand corner. (That will set the polygon and create four select boxes around it.)
7. From the Edit Menu, select Copy.
8. From the Edit Menu, select Paste.
9. Move the new copy of your angled line to the right so that the end points line up with the upper and lower right-hand corners of the grid square.
10. From the toolbox, select the polygon tool and draw an angled horizontal line (same drawing process as before) from the upper left-hand corner to the upper right-hand corner, creating a top to your shape.
11. Repeat steps # 6 - # 8.
12. Move the new copy of your angled line to the bottom so that the end points line up with the lower left and right-hand corners of the grid square.
13. From the toolbox, select the polygon tool and trace over all the lines in your figure, clicking once as you make each angle until you reach your starting point.
14. Once you reach the starting point, click ONCE and the polygon will become selected.
15. Move your new polygon off of the original lines, then delete those lines.
16. Click once on your new polygon to select it, copy it, then paste it.
17. Drag the new shape until it fits with the first one like a jigsaw puzzle. Remember to click in the center of an object when dragging it. If you grab a corner, you may distort the shape and it will no longer fit correctly.
18. Select the first polygon, then use the Fill Color tool to color the polygon.
19. Select the second polygon, then use the Fill Color tool to color the polygon a complementary color.
20. From the Edit Menu, choose "Select All".
21. From the Arrange menu, select "Group".
22. Copy the combined shapes, paste them, then move them to fit onto the originals. Make sure no adjoining colors are the same.
23. Continue this process until you reach the desired design size.
24. Click on the "Zoom Out" control at the bottom of your page to decrease the size back to the original.
25. Enjoy your creation!