Radial Symmetry

 

I did this kaleidoscope lesson years ago and it didn't go the way I wanted it to. I decided to do it again because it works so well with radial symmetry. I even have a class set of kaleidoscopes for my students to look through.

Only this time I changed it out a bit and stressed certain factors that needed to be in place. I also started the lesson by having the students do a mandala which I blogged about here.

  

This was done with my 4th grade students  on 12" square white drawing paper with markers.
I modeled for my students by tracing a wedge shape on a planning sheet (the wedge was 1/6 of the circle). I explained we would use letters on the wedge, either a name, initials or a word. The top and bottom of the letters need to touch the edges of the wedge. I believe this was part of what made it successful along with the fact that the circle was divided into only 6 equal parts.

 

 After they settled on what they decided to use for the wedge, they copied it onto tracing paper and transferred it to the circle they traced out on the paper.

 

They traced, flipped, traced, flipped until the circle was filled in.

 

 

I think they came out GREAT!!

 

 

My 4th graders have an exhibit in a local museum every year, this just might be the project I display!!

Thanks for Reading!

Symmetry

According to the curriculum guide I am attempting to follow, 2nd and 4th graders are required to learn symmetry. What really excited me with this lesson was I got to incorporate the iPads I received from a grant that I wrote. Click here for details.

I started the lesson with my students on the carpet and introduced the app Kaleido Free. There are different options for making art with lines of symmetry, from one line to 4 lines. My plan was to do kaleidoscope art with 2 lines of symmetry for 2nd grade and 4 lines with 4th grade.

 

 

I also let them look through actual kaleidoscopes that I bought years ago at Oriental Trading.

Before we started our project I wanted students to understand the basics of tracing and transferring their designs so I used these coloring sheets from Art for Kids to scaffold.

   

They taped tracing paper (which they were very excited to be able to see through) over the insect, traced it and then flipped over the tracing paper and transferred the lines to the other half of the paper.

For 2nd grade each student received the following: a 4 1/2" square piece of tracing paper a 4 1/2" square and a 9" square of white drawing paper.

 

They made their design on the 4 1/2" square paper, traced over the design with the tracing paper and then transferred it to the 9" square 4 times. Basically- draw design, trace design, flip over design (so that the pencil marks made are facing down on the paper) and retrace. Continue to flip and trace around the paper. Students painted to complete their kaleidoscopes.

 

As I did this project with students a few things occurred to me. Some of them were having trouble understanding the concept, some did very complicated designs which were taking a long time AND suddenly I didn't want all the art from all the groups to be the same. So I changed out the lesson for a few classes. I even managed to eliminate a step. Students folded their paper in half, did the design on one side. Then they traced it, flipped it and transferred it to the other side.

My 2nd graders did suns inspired by this book by Denise Logan.

 

   

 

 

And my 4th graders did African masks from this book, also by Denise Logan.

 

I have done many of the lessons from both books, they are well worth the money.

 

   

My 4th graders still need to finish because I just had to throw in a fun Christmas activity. I will share that in another post!

That's all for now, thanks for reading!!