I have been dying to explore symmetry with JDaniel this summer so I put together a series of activities. This is the first activity in the series I will sharing with you. It involved painting with a mirror. The mirror allowed JDaniel to see what his painting would look like on both sides of a piece of tag board when we finished the project. As you will see later,what was done to one side of the paper will appear on the other. I think you will like the cool painting ideas we did to complete this project.
Cool Painting Ideas Supplies
The first thing that needed to be done was to take out all the supplies we would need.
Here is what we used:
- card stock
- silicone cups filled with tempera paint
- dabbers made from buttons with pipe cleaners threaded through them (This is one of the cool painting ideas.)
- binder clips
- hand mirror
Directions for Symmetry Painting
We started by folding the card stock in half and setting in on a plastic place mat. (Plastic mats are a create table cover for painting projects.)
Then we put binder clips on the side of hand mirror. It was a little tricky to put the clips on and have the mirror balance.
While looking in the mirror to see how the painting was progressing, my son started to tap paint dots on the paper. (To keep hte colors from mixing we had a different paint dapper for each of the colors we used.) Dapping and later smearing paint with the button dappers looked like a lot of fun. I confess that I painted a few dots too.
After it was decided that enough painting was done, JDaniel unfolded the paper. The he refolded the paper to hide the painted dots on the inside of the paper.
The paper was then patted, tapped, and rubbed to transfer the paint to the blank side of the paper.
When the paper was opened up, we found an almost matching or symmetrical design. How well the paint transferred depended on the amount of paint initially applied. We decide that it look most symmetrical in the mirror.
It was so much fun to watch my son’s cool painting ideas appear in the mirror and on paper.
This painting technique is one of 101 painting ideas being shared at ‘Emma Owl’ this month as part of their Paint-A-Thon. 
Painting in front of a mirror is so fun!
We have done the folding paper idea, too, and you are right, it does depend on how much paint is put on and if it has dried some….but still lots of fun and a great way to work on symmetry!