Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Symmetry - Radial and Bilateral

Today we worked on advancing our understanding of symmetry.


A few classes ago, you may recall, we worked on printing monsters using a symmetrical printing technique. This involved painting on one half of out paper, folding it over, pressing and then unfolding. The monsters displayed bilateral symmetry - they are only symmetrical along one central axis.

Today we worked on radial symmetry. This means that an object is a mirror image of itself along a horizontal and vertical line at the same time. To create images with radial symmetry, we began by painting one of the distinct corners of a square of construction paper. We folded this in half along the horizonal line and pressed, then we unfolded the piece and refolded it along the vertical line and pressed. And voila! Here are a few fine examples:






Each child was able to create nine unique pieces for a grand total of 90 mini art works! Next week we will use these pieces to create a larger work of art. The kids also had an oppurtunity to use a worksheet to practice drawing designs that had radial symmerty. This is a much harder task as it requires moving and rotating shapes while drawing. It is very challenging - the kids did wonderfully. They pushed through the practice and really gained competency by the end.






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