Patterns that come back

Make patterns, and turn a pattern from one form into another, using movements, sounds, objects, shapes, letters and numbers. The museum offers shapes from the art and buildings of the Islamic world to make a pattern from; the movements, sounds and numbers are for your class to bring. ¹

Make a pattern with objects, then make the same pattern with claps or with a drawing. Say what stays the same.

Look closely at an arabesque. In it a leaf is never left alone: it always stays joined to its stalk, as an addition to it or at its end. The stalk may wave, spiral or interlace, and it may pass through a leaf or come out of it again. This is how the Encyclopaedia of Islam describes the arabesque ².

Imagine you draw a pattern of leaves, and every leaf must stay joined to a stalk. What must you do each time you add a new leaf, and why would the pattern look different if the leaves could float alone?

• The arabesque: the leaf pattern whose leaves grow from their stalks, and what the Encyclopaedia of Islam says about it.
• Islamic geometric patterns: patterns of stars, polygons and grids on buildings and art.

Look at the museum's record on the arabesque, pick circles, triangles or squares, and make a new pattern with them.