Butterfly Symmetry with Pixel Bricks™

Learning about symmetry is way more fun when you get to play with building bricks, especially our Pixel Bricks™! We are sharing an engaging hands-on way to learn an early math concept through an invitation to decorate butterfly wings.

What You Need:

- a pack of Pixel Bricks

- a StoryBricks® Letter Board

- if you have any books with butterfly pictures in them it can be fun to add those to the set up as well

The Set-Up:

Start off by making the outline of a butterfly using the Pixel Bricks on the baseplate. We used black as the outline and then added some white eyes. We were doing this activity with a preschooler so decided that it was best to make four small butterflies rather than making one or two big ones. If you have older kids they may well prefer the challenge of filling larger areas with the Pixel Bricks.

Time to Decorate the Butterflies!

The idea here is simple, invite your child to use the Pixel Bricks to add color to the butterflies' wings. The added challenge is to ensure that the wings are symmetrical. It is very important to make the language you use appropriate to the age of the child you are doing the activity with. Our little builder is 4 so for her we explained that butterfly wings are matching. Whatever is on one wing, the same is on the other wing and in the same position. We were sure to use the word symmetrical because exposure to vocabulary is very important in the early years.

Our builder got straight to work, choosing colorful bricks from the Mini SlideAway® and placing them on the butterfly. As she chose each brick, she picked out two of that color and added one to each wing. This helped her to keep track of the symmetry.

Pixel Bricks are a great way for children to work on their fine motor skills. To manipulate the 1x1 bricks requires a lot of small hand muscle movements and a solid pincer grip. These fine motor movements are key for developing the ability to write as children get older. As the butterfly wings were filled with bricks, we spoke about the colors we normally see on butterflies in our yard. We also spoke about the types of patterns and shapes we have seen on their wings before as well.

Our decorator did an awesome job adding symmetrical patterns to each butterfly wing. We finished off by reiterating that symmetry is when you can see the same on both sides of the shape when there is a central dividing line.

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Creative QT designs quality + innovative toys that declutter homes and inspire creative play. Founded by parents of five, Adam and Dana Sue Hinkle, Creative QT’s vision is to empower parents and encourage a culture of families thatMake Time Together. All products are designed to enrich families’ lives through active, creative play and play based learning. Creative QT products are laboratory tested for compliance with CPSC requirements and are free of lead, cadmium and phthalates so you can play with confidence. So, go ahead … today is the day: be your kid’s hero.

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