Second Grade
Discuss the meaning of symmetry. For example look at someone’s face. Imagine a line drawn down the center, dividing the face in half. Does each side look like the other, each having an eye, eyebrow, nose, mouth, in the same position? Yes. So the face is symmetrical. Hold up your hand, and imagine a line dividing it in half. Is your hand symmetrical? No.
We’re going to use the Paint program to draw a face. Let’s say you’ve carefully drawn an eye that looks very good. It has excellent shape. You like the color. You’ve added a perfect eyebrow. You’re very happy with it so far. Now you need to draw another eye of the same size and shape on the other side of the face so it will be symmetrical. It would be very difficult to duplicate everything. Computers allow us to duplicate things in a much easier way – copy & paste.
When the computer copies, you won’t actually see it make a copy. You just trust that you followed the steps correctly. When you tell the computer to paste, it makes whatever you copied appear.
You can tell the computer to copy and paste by using Edit in the Menu Bar. Click Edit once on the Paint program menu bar to see copy and paste listed there.
Remember that most computers come with a paint program. Check your computer’s Start Menu for Paint to try this activity at home.
Paint Symmetry
Begin by using the Harcourt Multimedia Math Glossary* to illustrate symmetry. Post the word "symmetry" on the TV monitor or wall for word recognition.
Use the Start Menu to open the Paint program. Click Start; move up and over Programs, over Accessories and onto Paint. Click.
Rest your mouse over tool buttons to see the popup clue showing what each tool is. Locate the Ellipse tool. Click it once to select it. Notice the three choices that then appear below the toolbar. Be sure the top choice of the three is chosen, highlighted. It allows us to create an outline shape. Choose black if not already chosen. Draw a large circle shape by holding down one of the Shift keys on the keyboard as you drag out your ellipse shape. Holding Shift causes it to draw a perfect circle instead of an oval. Remember that you can click Edit, Undo if you make a mistake or aren’t happy with something you’ve drawn.
Divide the circle in half with a yellow line. Choose the Line tool and yellow. Choose a medium thickness from the choices below the toolbar. Place your cursor near the top of your circle in the middle and drag down to the bottom of the circle to draw a dividing line. Place your left hand on the left side of your circle and say, "I will only draw on the left side."
Draw an eye outline using the Ellipse tool and black. Remember that you can click Edit, Undo if you need to try again. Draw and eyeball using the Ellipse tool and choose the bottom option of the three below the toolbar so you can draw a solid shape. Place your cursor inside your eye outline, and drag out an eyeball shape. Tip: Begin a bit to the left of where you want to place the shape. It takes practice. Click Edit, Undo if you need to try again. Then, choose black, leaving it on the solid ellipse tool to draw the pupil of the eye. Carefully look at your neighbor’s eye to see the colored iris and the black pupil inside that we are drawing. Again place your cursor inside the eyeball shape and drag out a solid black circle for the pupil.
Our eye needs one more thing – a highlight. Click the Brush tool and choose white. Notice all the shapes and sizes of brushes that appear below the toolbar. Select the large round brush size/shape. Move your mouse, without clicking, over the colored parts of the eye to see that the cursor now looks like a white dot. Position it inside the black pupil and click without dragging to create a white dot.
Create a nose by selecting brown and still using the Brush tool. Begin below the eye and draw what looks like you’re beginning to write the letter U. Stop at the centerline. Repeat, drawing a smaller version along the left side of that shape.
Draw a mouth shape by selecting red and still using the Brush tool. After drawing a smile, stopping at the center dividing line, draw a small curved line at the end. This gives the shape you see when you smile big, and your cheeks puff up a bit, creating a crease at the end of your mouth. Try it and you can feel the crease.
Finish the drawing by adding an eyebrow to give it some expression. Choose brown and still use the brush tool to draw an eyebrow curved along the top of the eye. Click Edit and Undo to try another eyebrow. This time use the Line tool. Draw an angled line, pointing downward near the center. Notice how that gives the face an angry or mean expression. Use Edit and Undo to begin again. Draw an eyebrow shape you like.
Now we need to copy this half of our face so that we can make the other side match exactly. Click Edit in the Menu Bar. Notice that Copy is listed on the Edit Menu, but it is ghosted, inactive at this time. Before you can copy you have to tell the computer what area to copy. Do that by using the Selection tool. It is at the top of the toolbar. Rest your mouse over both buttons at the top of the toolbar. One is Free Form Select, looks like a dotted star, the other is Select, and looks like a dotted rectangle shape. Choose the Select tool. Place your cursor at the top of the circle face outline along the center dividing line. Hold the mouse button down and drag down the center dividing line and out to the left until it places a dotted outline around the half of the face. If you make a mistake you can click away from it on a blank area outside the dotted lines to remove that selection and try again. Select the half of the face so the dotted selection lines surround it. Click Edit in the Menu Bar, then Copy. This tells the computer to copy the area you’ve selected. You won’t actually see anything happen as it copies. Then click Edit and Paste to make the copied area appear. Do NOT click anything else yet or you could cause the selection lines to disappear. We still need them. Notice the face copied but it’s going the same direction. We need to flip it. While it is still selected, click Image, also in the Menu Bar. The first item listed on the Image menu is Flip/Rotate. Click Flip/Rotate. A radio button should already be selected for Flip Horizontal. Click the OK button to flip it. Now it’s going the right direction. Move your mouse, without clicking, over the selected area. Notice the cursor looks like a thick, double arrow. When the cursor appears as that arrow you can click and drag to reposition the entire selected area. Do that to move the copied half of the face so that your nose and mouth shapes line up.
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Repeat the process to try it again.
Clear the work area to start over by clicking File and New. Click No when it asks if you
want to save.
This time you might want to add an ear, glasses, freckles, hair, etc. Remember to only
paint on half.
*Harcourt Multimedia Math Glossary, http://www.harcourtschool.com/glossary/math_advantage/glossary3.html
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© COPYRIGHT 2004 Mrs. Cannon
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original text created by Mrs. Cannon
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