a faithful attempt: Symmetrical Mandala Drawings using Reflect-View

This is a fun lesson that was introduced to me by a Math teacher at my school.

Last year we team-taught a Math + Art cross-curricular class which we call "MART".

For this mandala lesson, you need to buy these small plastic things called

"Reflect-View". I found them in the Math section of the educational catalog I order from and they're very inexpensive and sturdy.

In Math, they're used to help teach the basics of geometry, including axes of symmetry, reflections, transformations, and congruence. For Art, we're using them to teach symmetry.

Mandalas are a simple starting point for this lesson but you can also teach face symmetry, insect symmetry, etc.

I found some simple mandala colouring pages online and printed them off. Then I traced three versions of them: the easiest one which is half a mandala. Then a quarter of a mandala, and the last one which is, ummm, I need a Math teacher to help me! (one-eighths?? Math was my WORST subject in school- I struggle with it to this day!) The thin pie one- it's the most difficult because student need to trace it about 7 times to get a completed mandala.

So Grade 2 students picked the sheet of paper they felt most able to do. Most chose the quarter one.

Place the Reflect-View on the middle line of the mandala and you can see it's reflection on the other side of the paper. Students slowly and carefully trace this line. It's really tricky but fun! Once the one section is traced, you keep going around until the mandala is complete.

The finished mandala looks quite wobbly and such but it's still very charming.