Snowflakes grow from tiny ice crystals high in the clouds. Water freezes into a six-sided shape, so most snowflakes have six arms, and a snowflake that grows evenly has six lines of symmetry. Ice crystals also grow as flat six-sided plates and as long columns, depending on how cold and damp the air is.
Six pages of line symmetry with snowflakes. Page 1 shows six snowflakes and ice crystals: draw every line of symmetry and write how many. Most have six, one with long and short arms has three, a column has two and a pinwheel has none. Page 2 shows eight snowflakes with a dashed line: circle Yes if it is a line of symmetry and No if it is not. Page 3 gives the left half of four snowflakes drawn on dot paper: draw the right half on the dots. Page 4 does the same on a square grid with squares and half squares, and page 5 gives one quarter of each snowflake to finish across both lines. Page 6 is for designing a snowflake of your own. The first problem on pages 1 to 5 is a worked example.
Fold a paper circle in half three times, cut small notches and open it to make a paper snowflake, then find its lines of symmetry by folding again. On the dot paper page, have students count the dots from the dashed line: a line that starts two dots to the left of it ends two dots to the right on the other side. Page 6 makes a good hallway display.
Catch snowflakes on a dark mitten or a cold sheet of black paper and look at them with a magnifying glass. Count the arms. Cut a paper snowflake together and ask your child how many ways it could be folded so the halves match.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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Line symmetry with snowflakes and ice crystals, from six-armed stars to plates and columns. Students draw and count lines of symmetry, decide whether a dashed line is one, finish snowflakes across one and two lines on dot paper and a square grid, and design their own.
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