Symmetry Collage

Today we talked about symmetry... we didn't get too technical, but we discussed when a picture or an object is the exact same on one side, as it is the other.  I described it as "matching" and "twins" - terms he can understand and is familiar with.  To explore this new concept, we made a collage.
Materials needed:  paint, paper, paint brush, glue, scissors
To begin, he picked his 3 paint colors, and then painted one full sheet of paper the color of his choice.  This was to be the "background" of our piece of art.

Then I took one piece of paper and folded it in half.  We discussed how each page was the same, and that each half matched.  I cut the paper in half.  He used the remaining two colors and painted each of these pieces.  At this point, I suggest letting them dry.  (We did not, and things got messy :)
We took the two smaller pieces and folded them in half (we did one lengthwise, to be tall and thin, and one widthwise, to be short and wide).  Then he used a pen to draw a design along the paper.

This would be our outline to cut along.  I did the cutting.  Then we unfolded the piece together to see what shape we made.

 We discussed how each side was the same, or "symmetrical".  He decided how he wanted to place it on the big background page, and we centered and glued it down.

We did the same thing with the other  piece of painted paper.

 We used some of the scraps to make a "border" on our piece of work.

We then folded the whole piece in half, and discussed how the artwork, itself, was symmetrical, as well!  We think this one might be a framer!  It was lots of good messy fun, too!