Symmetry and Kirigami (Fri Art)

 Just before bed last night, Nel came up to me and said, "Mum, can we try paper cutting tomorrow?" showing me a piece of kirigami she'd done. Nel's always loved patterns and symmetry, it's in the way she does things, in the way she keeps and arranges her stuff as well.

So today, I headed to the art shop, got stuff and did a simple lesson with my girls.
We first reviewed parallel/perpendicular lines which we did in last week's art.
Then we looked at the definition of symmetry.

 We talked of how it existed in nature, in objects around the house, even in alphabets. We did a brief walk around the house and in the garden to spot objects that had symmetry.

Having done that, I gave them a simple project. I drew them the following and asked them to complete the picture, and to make sure it was symmetrical.

 Here's what Jo did with hers.

Nel worked on mine for a while, and when it didn't look too symmetrical, she abandoned it and decided to work on a new piece.

 Nel's work, defining symmetry.

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Having done that, we moved on to Kirigami, since it is based on symmetry. We looked at some examples of Kirigami online and started working on our own.

 I did 2 basic ones to show the girls.

 Jo requested for one on dogs and cats, and we came up with this. Here she's adding expressions to the animals.

 Nel's first kirigami

 Jo attempted a whale, but it tore to 2 parts.

 Nel's work again, where she's layered 2 pieces together.
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Kirigami completed we proceeded outside to work on symmetrical painting.

 We divided the paper to 2 sections,n Nel on one side, and Jo on the other. We painted in layers, folding the paper after every few strokes to see the outcome.

 After several layers of painting and folding, this was the outcome.

 We then stuck our kirigami onto the painting using green tag.

And this was the final piece of art for the day. :)  Children really enjoyed today's work of art. :)