Nursery Snowflake Symmetry: Loose-Parts Mat

Snowflake Symmetry: loose-parts snowflake mat. A big six-armed snowflake outline. Children build snowflakes with loose parts, putting the same things on every arm, and make up their own designs. What’s included: • Teacher guide with Development Matters links. • Guided snowflake mat. • Blank snowflake design mat. Ideas for using it: • Same on every arm: Put the same thing at the end of every arm. • Build out: Start in the middle and build outwards. • Your own: Use the blank side to design any snowflake. • Photo it: Take a photo, then clear the mat for the next child. Linked to Development Matters (three and four-year-olds): • Explore different materials freely, to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make. • Develop their own ideas and then decide which materials to use to express them. • Talk about and identify the patterns around them. For example: stripes on clothes, designs on rugs and wallpaper. Use informal language like ‘pointy’, ‘spotty’, ‘blobs’, etc. • Use a wider range of vocabulary. Supplied as a ready-to-print PDF (A4 landscape). Print, laminate and reuse all year.