Symmetry Lesson Starters and Online Activities

There are 366 different Starters of The Day, many to choose from. You will find in the left column below some starters on the topic of Symmetry. In the right column below are links to related online activities, videos and teacher resources. A lesson starter does not have to be on the same topic as the main part of the lesson or the topic of the previous lesson. It is often very useful to revise or explore other concepts by using a starter based on a totally different area of Mathematics. Main Page
Symmetry Starters: Dice Reflections: A dice is reflected in two mirrors. What numbers can be seen? Freemason's Cipher: Find symmetric words in this ancient cipher. Match Fish: A classic matchstick puzzle designed to challenge your spacial awareness. Mirror Maths: The bottom half of some symmetrical calculations are shown above. Can you work out the answers? Reflective Cat: On squared paper copy the drawing of the face then reflect it in three different lines. Rotational Symmetry: Draw a pattern with rotational symmetry of order 6 but no line symmetry. Wrapping Paper: Find the order of rotational symmetry of the repeating pattern. Small images of these Starters :: Index of Starters Index of Advanced Starters Suggested Shape Sorter Drag each shape into the correct bin according to their types and symmetries. The short web address is: Transum.org/go/?to=shapesorter Curriculum for Symmetry: Year 5 Pupils should be taught to identify, describe and represent the position of a shape following a reflection or translation, using the appropriate language, and know that the shape has not changed. more... Year 6 Pupils should be taught to draw and translate simple shapes on the coordinate plane, and reflect them in the axes more... Years 7 to 9 Pupils should be taught to describe, sketch and draw using conventional terms and notations: points, lines, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, right angles, regular polygons, and other polygons that are reflectively and rotationally symmetric more... Pupils should be taught to identify properties of, and describe the results of, translations, rotations and reflections applied to given figures more... Years 10 and 11 Pupils should be taught to sketch translations and reflections of the graph of a given function more... Years 12 and 13 Pupils should be taught to understand and use the sine, cosine and tangent functions; their graphs, symmetries and periodicity. Know and use exact values of sin, cos and tan for the following angles (in degrees and radians) 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, 180° and multiples thereof more... Exam-Style Questions: There are almost a thousand exam-style questions unique to the Transum website. Feedback: Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Fiona Bray, Cams Hill School: "This is an excellent website. We all often use the starters as the pupils come in the door and get settled as we take the register." Comment recorded on the 28 May 'Starter of the Day' page by L Smith, Colwyn Bay: "An absolutely brilliant resource. Only recently been discovered but is used daily with all my classes. It is particularly useful when things can be saved for further use. Thank you!" Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by M Chant, Chase Lane School Harwich: "My year five children look forward to their daily challenge and enjoy the problems as much as I do. A great resource - thanks a million." Comment recorded on the 16 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs A Milton, Ysgol Ardudwy: "I have used your starters for 3 years now and would not have a lesson without one! Fantastic way to engage the pupils at the start of a lesson." Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by Terry Shaw, Beaulieu Convent School: "Really good site. Lots of good ideas for starters. Use it most of the time in KS3." Comment recorded on the 10 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Carol, Sheffield PArk Academy: "3 NQTs in the department, I'm new subject leader in this new academy - Starters R Great!! Lovely resource for stimulating learning and getting eveyone off to a good start. Thank you!!" Comment recorded on the 18 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs. Peacock, Downe House School and Kennet School: "My year 8's absolutely loved the "Separated Twins" starter. I set it as an optional piece of work for my year 11's over a weekend and one girl came up with 3 independant solutions." Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by S Mirza, Park High School, Colne: "Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom." Comment recorded on the 23 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Judy, Chatsmore CHS: "This triangle starter is excellent. I have used it with all of my ks3 and ks4 classes and they are all totally focused when counting the triangles." Comment recorded on the 25 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk, : "We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much Best wishes from Inger Kisby" Comment recorded on the 5 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Stoner, St George's College of Technology: "This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative." Comment recorded on the 7 December 'Starter of the Day' page by Cathryn Aldridge, Pells Primary: "I use Starter of the Day as a registration and warm-up activity for my Year 6 class. The range of questioning provided is excellent as are some of the images. I rate this site as a 5!" Comment recorded on the s /Coordinate 'Starter of the Day' page by Greg, Wales: "Excellent resource, I use it all of the time! The only problem is that there is too much good stuff here!!" Comment recorded on the 19 November 'Starter of the Day' page by Lesley Sewell, Ysgol Aberconwy, Wales: "A Maths colleague introduced me to your web site and I love to use it. The questions are so varied I can use them with all of my classes, I even let year 13 have a go at some of them. I like being able to access Starters for the whole month so I can use favourites with classes I see at different times of the week. Thanks." Comment recorded on the 6 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Natalie, London: "I am thankful for providing such wonderful starters. They are of immence help and the students enjoy them very much. These starters have saved my time and have made my lessons enjoyable." Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School: "What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun." Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Johnstone, 7Je: "I think this is a brilliant website as all the students enjoy doing the puzzles and it is a brilliant way to start a lesson." Comment recorded on the 1 August 'Starter of the Day' page by Peter Wright, St Joseph's College: "Love using the Starter of the Day activities to get the students into Maths mode at the beginning of a lesson. Lots of interesting discussions and questions have arisen out of the activities. Thanks for such a great resource!" Comment recorded on the 9 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Jones, Wales: "I think that having a starter of the day helps improve maths in general. My pupils say they love them!!!" Comment recorded on the 17 November 'Starter of the Day' page by Amy Thay, Coventry: "Thank you so much for your wonderful site. I have so much material to use in class and inspire me to try something a little different more often. I am going to show my maths department your website and encourage them to use it too. How lovely that you have compiled such a great resource to help teachers and pupils. Thanks again" Comment recorded on the 28 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Malcolm P, Dorset: "A set of real life savers!! Keep it up and thank you!" Comment recorded on the 26 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai: "It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages." Comment recorded on the 12 July 'Starter of the Day' page by Miss J Key, Farlingaye High School, Suffolk: "Thanks very much for this one. We developed it into a whole lesson and I borrowed some hats from the drama department to add to the fun!" Comment recorded on the 24 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Ruth Seward, Hagley Park Sports College: "Find the starters wonderful; students enjoy them and often want to use the idea generated by the starter in other parts of the lesson. Keep up the good work" Comment recorded on the 19 October 'Starter of the Day' page by E Pollard, Huddersfield: "I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information." Comment recorded on the s /Indice 'Starter of the Day' page by Busolla, Australia: "Thank you very much for providing these resources for free for teachers and students. It has been engaging for the students - all trying to reach their highest level and competing with their peers while also learning. Thank you very much!" Comment recorded on the 9 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Liz, Kuwait: "I would like to thank you for the excellent resources which I used every day. My students would often turn up early to tackle the starter of the day as there were stamps for the first 5 finishers. We also had a lot of fun with the fun maths. All in all your resources provoked discussion and the students had a lot of fun." Comment recorded on the 19 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Nikki Jordan, Braunton School, Devon: "Excellent. Thank you very much for a fabulous set of starters. I use the 'weekenders' if the daily ones are not quite what I want. Brilliant and much appreciated." Comment recorded on the 21 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Trainor And His P7 Class(All Girls), Mercy Primary School, Belfast: "My Primary 7 class in Mercy Primary school, Belfast, look forward to your mental maths starters every morning. The variety of material is interesting and exciting and always engages the teacher and pupils. Keep them coming please." Comment recorded on the 2 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Wilshaw, Dunsten Collage,Essex: "This website was brilliant. My class and I really enjoy doing the activites."	Notes: This topic covers line symmetry and rotational symmetry. The innate appeal of symmetry can be found in our reactions to finding symmetry in natural objects, such as precisely formed crystals or seashells. Symmetry in art is another source of delight. Understanding the mathematics of symmetry is the focus of this topic. Accurately drawing the reflection of an object requires an understanding of the relative positions of reflected points. Defining the position of the mirror line is important to find the position and orientation of the reflection. The Wrapping Paper lesson starter makes it clear that for rotational symmetry, the position of the centre of rotation is very important. Work on this topic can produce some excellent display work! Symmetry Teacher Resources: Kite Maths: Can you make a kite shape from a single A4 size sheet of paper using only three folds? Polygons: Name the polygons and show the number of lines and order of rotational symmetry. Symmetry Activities: Shape Sorter: Drag each shape into the correct bin according to their types and symmetries. Snowflake Generator: See how the hexagon can be transformed into a snowflake with some basic translations. Xmas Symmetry Pairs: Match the pictures with the description of their symmetry. Polygons: Name the polygons and show the number of lines and order of rotational symmetry. Transformations: Draw transformations online and have them instantly checked. Includes reflections, translations, rotations and enlargements. Pattern Clues: An interactive activity challenging you to reproduce a pattern of coloured squares according to given clues. Rotational Symmetry Pairs: The traditional pairs or pelmanism game adapted to test knowledge of rotational symmetry. Symmetry Table Challenge: In how many cells can you draw symmetrical shapes with the given row and column headings? Symmetry Videos: Transum's Symmetry Video The science of symmetry: An illustrated talk about the notion of symmetry and how it applies to nature. Symmetry, reality's riddle: Marcus du Sautoy' TED talk illustrating some aspects of symmetry. Symmetry Worksheets/Printables: Cat Face Reflections: A worksheet containing pictures and shapes to be reflected in given lines. Polybragging Cards: Printable cards for the Polybragging game. Use the properties of polygons to win. Symmetry External Links: Links to other websites containing resources for Symmetry are provided for those logged into 'Transum Mathematics'. Subscribing also opens up the opportunity for you to add your own links to this panel. You can sign up using one of the buttons below: Search The activity you are looking for may have been classified in a different way from the way you were expecting. You can search the whole of Transum Maths by using the box below. Other Is there anything you would have a regular use for that we don't feature here? Please let us know. Suggested Symmetry Table Challenge In how many cells can you draw symmetrical shapes with the given row and column headings? The short web address is: Transum.org/go/?to=symmetrytablechallenge
Teaching Notes: Many Transum activities have notes for teachers suggesting teaching methods and highlighting common misconceptions. There are also solutions to puzzles, exercises and activities available on the web pages when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher, tutor or parent you can apply for one by completing the form on the Sign Up page. A Transum subscription also gives you access to the 'Class Admin' student management system, downloadable worksheets, many more teaching resources and opens up ad-free access to the Transum website for you and your pupils.
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