Finding the Line of Symmetry

Wow, it's term FOUR already!

We've started learning about TRANSFORMATION.  We had a think about what that might mean.  Tom and Tigue mentioned the words moving and changing.  Deacon mentioned the Transformers and that they change into different things.  Well done guys.  Between you, you put your prior knowledge to great use to work out something new.  What a team!

The first stage is learning about symmetry.  This is when something is exactly the same on both sides of the line just as though there is a mirror on the line.

We looked at lots of different things and put them on the right chart.  You can see our charts hanging up in Room 4.  Mr Graham was putting up some new lines for displaying our learning in Room 4 so we looked at him to see if he was symmetrical.  Koby held the metre rule up to show the middle of Mr Graham and we looked carefully at each side of the line.  What do you think?

At first glance he does have a line of symmetry like most other people.  He has an eye, an ear, an arm and a leg on each side of the line.  BUT his left pocket has a black patch and the right pocket doesn't AND his right shirt sleeve is hanging down but his left shirt sleeve isn't.  Sorry Mr Graham, you are not symmetrical today.

Here are some photos of us exploring some pictures and letters to see if they have a line of symmetry.  Some things have more than one line of symmetry.  See if you can spot them.

Clocks look like they should be symmetrical but Tigue found out that some are not because the numbers are different on each side of the line.

Luke wasn't caught out by the tricky letter 'B'.  When he put the stick on the line, he found out that the lower curve is fatter than the upper curve.  Well done Luke.

Isaiah drew in the line on the bunch of balloons and discovered that they are slightly different on each side.

Steven looked very carefully on each side of his stick line to work out whether this image was symmetrical.

Koby carefully lined up the stick down the middle of the little letter 'i' and found out that it was symmetrical after all!

After we finished, we got together with a learning buddy to share the pictures we had chosen and showed the lines of symmetry if there were any.

Tom and Charlotte are sharing their learning.

We'll be learning more about lines of symmetry this coming Friday.  I wonder where we might see symmetrical patterns around school?

Ka kite ano

Room 4