Symmetry

Warm Up: Play this symmetry sorting game. Discuss why some are symmetrical and others are not. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/symmetry/symmetry-sorting

Students complete symmetry challenge on nrich. Shade the squares of the grid with one colour to make different designs. How many different designs can you make that have at least 1 line of symmetry? FYI there are 64 total possibilities.

You could follow the possible approach section in teacher’s resources to introduce the activity.

Enabling: start with a 2 by 2 grid so that they feel confident that they understand the requirements of the problem.

Extending: The problem can be extended to discuss larger square lattices, e.g. 4 by 4 and whether there are any differences between even and odd lengths of side. The activity Shady Symmetry is also an extension possibility.