How to Easily Teach Symmetry with This Free Butterfly Printable

Use this butterfly activity to introduce symmetry to your kids. After decorating the free printable you can use mirror board to help kids see that a butterfly’s wings are symmetrical.

If you are studying butterflies or insects, it’s the perfect time to introduce symmetry to kids.  Use my butterfly printable and a mirror to teach kids to recognize symmetry in the environment.

Supplies

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You will need the following supplies for the butterfly activity:

• Butterfly printable
• Shape stickers
• crayons
• mirror board (I used 5×7″)

Download the Printable

To begin, print the butterfly printable.  The printable contains an image of one side of a butterfly.  Print them and fold them in half so that kids only decorate the left side.  You can download the free printable butterfly by clicking on the link below.

Butterfly Symmetry Activity Printable

Decorate the Butterfly

Next, kids can decorate the butterfly with stickers, crayons, markers, bingo daubers, sequins, etc.

See the Symmetry

I used mirror board for this activity.  You can tape a piece of mirror board to the page so that kids can take it home, or you can just hold the mirror board up to the page.  If you don’t have mirror board, you can also use unbreakable mirrors for this activity.

Line the mirror board up with the center of the butterfly at a 90-degree angle to reveal the symmetrical butterfly image.  Point out how the butterfly’s wings look the same on both sides of its body.

Additional Activities

Use the mirror board to find symmetry in other shapes and objects.  Fold paper hearts, circles, squares, triangle, pictures of faces, etc in half.  Hold the shapes and images up to the mirror board to see the symmetry.  Challenge kids to find more symmetrical shapes/objects.  You can also challenge kids to unfold the butterfly printable and draw and decorate the right side of the butterfly.

I hope that you enjoy using this butterfly activity with your kids. If you have any additional ideas for using the butterfly symmetry printable, I would love to hear them in the comments below.

Are you are interested in more butterfly and insect-themed activities? Check out the resources below in my TPT store:

Below are some items from Amazon that can be used for the activities mentioned in this article. The links below are affiliate links. If you happen to purchase something from link, there will be no additional cost to you, but a small portion of your purchase will be used towards the cost of maintaining this website