Symmetrical Butterflies Art Project
Looking to teach a lesson on symmetry? You can bridge math and art with this fun, vibrant project.
Butterflies are an obvious choice for symmetrical animals thanks to their detailed designs. If you’re teaching it in the spring, it’s an even better time to dive into butterflies.
Using a rubbing technique, its easy to ensure that both sides of your butterfly will be
Timeline: 60 minutes
Materials:
Card stock or any white paper
Pencil
Black oil pastel
Paint brush
Tempera paint (I use paint pucks)
Procedure:
Before starting the project, look at some pictures of butterflies and talk about what we notice about them.
Also talk about symmetry and what it means (if you haven’t already).
Fold your paper in half.
On one side, sketch a butterfly design. Since it’ll only be half, it’ll be the wings and part of the body only.
Now trace the sketch with black oil pastel.
Fold the other side over again and gently rub your hand over it. Go slowly, you don’t want a mess of smudges. You want the pastel to transfer to the empty side. Feel free to open it and check how it’s doing.
Once the pastel outline has transferred enough to be seen on the other side, use the black pastel to trace over these faint lines to make them just as thick as the original side.
Once you have your whole butterfly outlined, it’s time to paint. It’s important to use the same colours in the same sections on both sides, they are symmetrical wings, of course! Start by painting the butterfly, then pain the background. Since the butterfly is the star of the show in this project, choose one solid colour for the background, rather than a busy scene or pattern.
Below you can see the transfer process. These are actually two different examples so their wing shape and pattern are not the same but, you get the idea. Simple designs are better. The more lines you make the harder it is to transfer and match up.
