Snowflakes, Symmetry and Scissor Practice

Did you grow up cutting papers to make designs? Doilies… snowflakes… ornaments… Did you know that you can learn so much mathematics from those snowflakes? Symmetry, for one. I gave wings to my son’s imagination last week. Here is what we came up with:

1. There are so many ways to fold the paper. He only knew about halves and quarters but when I showed him how he could fold asymmetrically into triangles and diagonally too, he was amazed by the way the paper folded.

2. You can cut up only one time and the result is punched all around. This was his ‘aha’ moment! When I made him cut up a design and it repeated all around, it was like I had taught him magic!

3. It is possible to have repeated non overlapping patterns too. I cut up some snowflakes with two different spokes. He was full of ideas!

4. This was an amazing way to practice his scissor skills too. He is bad with scissors. He shakes too much and always complaing that his kiddie scissors is the problem. Haha! right! After practicing on the snowflakes, he now thinks his scissors is the best! There it is scissor practice too!

5. You don’t need too many supplies to make beautiful things. We were working with just paper, a pencil and scissors. No gum, no colours, no glitter… just imagination at play. We had started with waste papers first and then when he had practiced enough I gave him coloured papers so that he could see how beautiful his creations were. This is something I had wanted to teach him for a very long time. I wanted him to know that simple things can be hours of fun too. Craft doesn’t have to be loads of store brought material.

Would you like to create some for yourself? Here are a few designs we made that we’d like to share with you.

Here is a pinnable image for you! Just hover over the picture and you will get the Pin It button. 🙂

Interested in more ideas to play with your child? Check out our most popular posts:

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