A group of Year 7 and 8s have been exploring maths using tapa cloths as their inspiration.

For the past three weeks the Titoki maths group has been investigating some geometry principals in maths - rotation, reflection, translation and enlargement.  We discovered that lots of these principals are used in traditional tapa cloth design and we used these as a starting point for inspiration.  We spent a bit of time exploring what the various symbols meant.  We also identified how the different types of maths are represented within the designs.  From this point we then designed our own tapa cloths using symbols which told our story, whilst also ensuring that our designs included multiple examples of rotation, reflection, translation and enlargement.  We went over our final results with strong coffee to dye our paper so the classroom now has a faint smell of stewed coffee!  I think you'll agree that the results are stunning.  It just shows that maths really can be fun and creative!