With these 3D printed lizards, young children can have lots of fun playing with their hands and minds on. Some key questions that teachers can ask or challenge students when playing:

• Can you put them together without leaving gaps or overlaps? (approaching definition of tessellation)

• Do you think they can all fit together if you have a million of them? Why do you think so?

• What transformation do you need to fit / connect them together? (rotation or turn)

• If you flip some of them, can they still fit together?

• How many ways can any two lizards fit together?

• How many neighbours does each lizard have when it is fully surrounded?

• How many orientations are there for this lizard tessellation?

I also made a stop-motion video using these lizards. This could be another activity for students to explain what they know about tessellation, and at the same time develop their ICT skills.

For higher level learning, young children may ask how they are created and they would like to create their own tessellation. To this, they can research about Escher to find out more. Lizards (Reptiles) is a mathematical art work by M. C. Escher in March 1943. I also found a good video explaining about the creation of this lizard tessellation.