Quarter the Cross is one of my favourite activities of all time, whether in maths or just life. I learned about it way back in 2015 and have been mildly or very obsessed with it ever since. You can read about my obsession in my first Quarter the Cross blog post, and you can read about how I implemented it in a classroom in the Day of Maths series blog post.
This blog post is about one particular version of the Quarter the Cross problem you might like: the colouring version!
Back in 2017 I made a version of the cross with a lot of straight and circular lines on it so that instead of drawing your own lines, you could simply colour in the existing ones. I say “simply”, but… well look for yourself:
There are a LOT of lines there. If you look closely you can see lines cutting each smaller square into quarters in two directions, the diagonals of each square, lines connecting the centres of each side of the square to the corners, and circular arcs of two different sizes in various different locations. Plenty of scope to create your own fancy designs, or just make designs you think are less fancy look more like stained-glass windows!
You can download the Quarter the Cross colouring template in PDF, SVG and high resolution PNG formats here:
Here are some designs made by me and Simon Gregg using the colouring template.
Some #QuarterTheCross colouring by @Simon_Gregg. pic.twitter.com/TzlH8D5XXJ
— David Butler (@DavidKButlerUoA) August 24, 2020
So there it is. I hope you have fun with it, and if you do make something I’d love you to share it with me!