Symmetry Art

Aren’t these awesome! We are learning about lines of symmetry in Grade 4. I decided it would be fun to understand our Geometry unit in a creative and colourful way. This lesson took us two 40 minute blocks. It was a great activity because students could create their patterns based on their own math and art skills. Everyone really enjoyed this one! And they make the classroom beautiful hanging above our white boards. If you are interested in doing this with a higher grade, I suggest having them create more complex patterns and more than 8 sections.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for my lesson plan:

 1. Hand out circles to students.

2. Guide students through folding their circles (square piece of paper) into 8ths.

3.  Once students have folder their circles. They will get their single slice of pizza (1/8th)

4. On the slice of pizza, students will draw a simple design containing different types of lines, simple symbols, lines of different thickness.

5. Once students have created their pizza template (1/8th) they will shade the back of the pizza slice with a pencil.

6. They will then put their pizza template over 1/8th of their circle. They will trace over their design fairly hard. Make sure they hold on to the template firmly so it doesn’t move around and mess up the design.

7. Have students do step 6 to all eight slices of circle.

8. Once students have finished the pencil work, they can move on to colouring (USING PENCIL CRAYONS). Remind them to colour the entire design (no white).

9. After they completed their colouring, they will outline their design in black sharpie. Use newspaper under their sheets to prevent the marker from leaking through on their desk.

Success Criteria (how I marked students):

• Use 4 elements to create you design (ex. curved lines, zigzag lines, diamond, thick line)
• Use at least 3 different colours
• No white spaces
• Each section of the circle has a  congruent design
• Outline with a black sharpie