Symmetry is All Around Me

It’s amazing how much in our world is symmetrical. Once you start looking, you find symmetry (both occurring naturally and man-made) everywhere!

Walking around saying “see” and “look at this” didn’t really seem like the best way to explain symmetry so I turned to Loreen Leedy for help. Her book Seeing Symmetry is wildly fun.

The graphics are bold and the explanation ever so helpful. It has TONS of examples of symmetry (whales, beetles, airplanes, the human body, certain letters of the alphabet, etc.).

The book explained vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry and even demonstrated rotational symmetry (think bicycle wheel or helicopter blade).

After reading, I handed my son his camera (our half broken old one) and told him to find at least a dozen symmetrical things and take pictures of them. He didn’t even have to leave his seat at the kitchen table to find the first one – the sunglasses perched on my head!

Soon, he was off snapping pictures everywhere in the house (it was threatening rain outside so our symmetry hunt was confined to indoors).

He was ecstatic to find an example of rotational symmetry in his bedroom: his ceiling fan!

With his pictures taken, I quick loaded them onto my computer and printed nine wallet size. Then I cut them out and handed them to him with a red colored pencil and a ruler. It was time to draw each item’s line of symmetry!