Symmetrical House

Materials: 

• Drawing paper
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Optional: markers, colored pencil, canvas&paint

This is a very versatile activity. I like to teach symmetry to each group of art campers, because I know it is something familiar to them, but not necessarily in an artistic context. Houses are good things to practice drawing symmetrically, as are cats, dogs, people, trees... and the list goes on. 

Also, this idea can be done as a large project that they measure out and paint or color, or as a quick sketch for practice. 

This time we will be learning symmetry the day before completing this exercise. I like to give the children an activity each day that reviews what they learned the day before. It so happens that our theme that day will be "Architecture/Design," so it seems logical to incorporate some architecture into our review as well! 

The students will each receive a piece of paper, a ruler, and a pencil. Rather than explaining my method of measurement, I am going to let them reason through it on their own. It is not necessary that they actually achieve a perfectly symmetric home; I place a much higher value on the time they'll spend thinking about implementing the concept of symmetry. For that reason, I do not have specific instructions on teaching students how to do this. I do, however, recommend drawing a line down the middle by which to measure and compare.