playing a symmetry game

 

We do the symmetry game at group time in the spring (my mother used to do this with me when I was really young, yay memories!) Many of my three year olds are now four and are beginning to grasp larger concepts. We talk about the wings of a butterfly when we introduce symmetry aka bilateral symmetry. I will draw a butterfly on the chalkboard as guided by the children narrating my process as I do so. Then I place an object on one side and invite a child to match it on the other side. Once everyone gets a turn, we place more chalkboards on the carpet for the children to play it together. It's totally cool if they do not get it, they will someday. What this does is give us teachers a chance to assess the children without assessing them. Sometimes, there will be a child so into the game that it carries off into their play for the week. They discover other items with smmetry and we guide them through their learning based o nwhere their interests are.

dot marker butterflies {a lesson in symmetry}

I thought it would be fun, during our week of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to use dot markers to create symmetrical patterns on butterflies.

I drew the butterflies freehand onto our large white paper (still haven't picked up a code for the copy machine but I'm too busy too get into the office to make copies anyway) with pencil for the first one then used Sharpie over it. I used our window as a lightbox to make copies the old fashioned way but the children were going through them so fast I just drew them when we needed more. Talk about muscle memory, I can probably draw these in my sleep!

As with the magnetic butterflies we talked about symmetry. Some of the children wanted to match what I did so instead, I asked them to make a pattern so I could match theirs. After a few trial runs, the a-ha! moments kicked in and they were having a blast. Now, if only I could figure out how to preserve those sponge tips on the dot markers. Any ideas?

diy magnetic butterfly {that is also a chalkboard and a felt board}

This project is a favorite of mine and the children's! There are three ways the children can interact with them. They are a both a magnet board and a chalkboard and the backs are covered in felt to use as a felt board. I came up with is on the spot at Michaels once I saw these butterflies.

These wooden butterflies were a great size, not too small, not too large. They were thick and sturdy and while I wish they were flat, the details were not too cumbersome. At two dollars a pop, I snatched two up and ran to the paint section to search for magnetic paint. The only magnetic paint they had was from Martha Stewart. It was a bit on the pricey side but I really wanted to make this project and was very happy I had a coupon to use so I justified the purchase and popped it into my basket. I gave the butterflies two coats of magnet paint and one coat of black chalkboard paint that I had previously purchased from Michaels as well. It was a small bottle, 2 oz, from CraftSmart. While the paint was drying, I glued magnets to happy colored shape buttons purchased from Oriental Trading, and cut out tiny shapes from colored scraps of felt I had from another project. To finish it off, I glued orange felt to the back of one butterfly, and yellow felt to the back of the other.

We covered our  butterflies in buttons, colored them with chalk, pretended they were sandwiches and practiced our symmetry (for some of the children I designed one side of the butterfly while they matched the other and vice versa). We also sorted out our magnetic buttons into cool and warm colors (which was an impromptu project when one of the children asked me if purple was a cool color, how awesome is that?) We never got out the felt pieces for the back as the task of covering the entire surface with brown chalk (and only brown chalk) was much too enticing for ALL of the children.

I am really really pleased with how this project turned out and how the children engaged with it. Now I have to think of some other projects for my magnetic paint. Any suggestions?