Thursday, December 6, 2012

symmetry snowflakes.

I think I have done more winter themed projects this year than I have ever before. What's up with that?! I'm usually so ba-humbug when it comes to the holidays. I think a lot of it is seeing my son and daughter now caught up in the holiday spirit at home:)

Anywho...

This week the second grade classes made 3d paper snowflakes. I started the lesson by talking to them about what a collage is and what symmetry is. Both are part of the 2nd grade art standards. I drew examples of shapes on the board and split them in half. The kids then told me whether the sides were equal or not. What they discovered was that some shapes have symmetry in one direction, some in more than one, and some don't have it at all.

I then showed them the back of a snowflake I had made. They thought it was pretty neat, but when I flipped it over to show them the front, the majority of classes went off:) I have to admit, I think these are pretty "cool" too.

The snowflakes have 3 layers, big medium, and small, as well as dark, medium, and light. Some students expressed concern that they would not be able to do it. I assured them by folding our paper we would be able to create symmetrical shapes.

Each layer is built the same way, although the medium and small layers can have one less cut slit than the big layer. We made each 4 point star (snowflake) by folding the paper twice. We quartered each square. I asked the classes how many quarters were in a dollar and when they told me 4 I pointed out that our square was now folded into 4 parts.

Even though the students followed the same steps, each of the snowflakes looked different and unique depending on line spacing, layer arrangement, and how deep the slits were cut.












3 comments:

  1. You beat me to it! Nice job! These are easy to make. I see you did it with second, did they have trouble with it? There are not enough weeks in December to do all the projects of the season:P

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    1. they did really well with it. i needed to make sure their Slit lines didn't touch each other or the folded edge of the paper on both ends, so that they didnt fall apart. the other thing is making sure they fold the paper TWO times for all the layers. The first one we did the folds all together. for the second and 3rd layers, it was more independent and some kids forgot. have extra paper cut and ready to go:)

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  2. I love these and plan on using this idea with my 4th graders next week if I am able to squeeze it in!

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