Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to identify and describe different patterns made of geometric designs, including patterns you can find in real places. The museum offers one short record on geometric patterns in buildings, the girih; the photographs, the describing and the rest of the patterns your class brings. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- C1.1 identify and describe a variety of patterns involving geometric designs, including patterns found in real-life contexts
2 The lesson
What repeats?
Look at a pattern and find the smallest part that repeats. Say what changes and what stays the same each time it comes back.
Where else do you see it?
Patterns are not only on walls. Look for one on a floor, a fabric or a fence near you, and describe it in words a friend could use to draw it.
Go deeper
Imagine a long wall covered with stars and many-sided shapes. The museum's record says that girih patterns build stars and polygons from interlacing lines, that they were common in Safavid and Seljuk buildings, and that they rest on girih tiles 2. A second record says that Islamic geometric patterns are repeated patterns of stars, polygons and grids that cover the surfaces of buildings and art from al-Andalus to Central Asia 2. The two records do not say who designed them.
Think about it
Find a star in a girih pattern. Which would help a friend draw the pattern better: naming its shapes, or telling where it repeats, and why?
Into the museum
- Girih: how stars and polygons are built from interlacing lines.
- Islamic geometric patterns: repeated patterns of stars, polygons and grids, from al-Andalus to Central Asia.
Try this
Read the record on girih. Draw a star or a polygon you can find in a girih pattern, and then draw the next two shapes in its row.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Girih have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Stars from interlacing lines. Girih are Islamic geometric knot patterns that build stars and polygons from interlacing lines. They were widespread in Safavid and Seljuk architecture and rest on girih tiles. Which shapes can you pick out in one of them?
I can now