Matching Guesswork
Grade: Kindergarten +
Teacher: Marites Eldred
Time: 20-60 minutes
Teacher: Marites Eldred
Time: 20-60 minutes
An important skill for any child to learn is the educated guess. When students are creative enough to search for answers using partial information they can become more confident learners. This project is to encourage them to use the elements of line, color, shape, and sometimes symmetry to practice matching and making educated guesses.
Materials
Magazines, paper, scissors, glue or tape, drawing utensils (pencils, crayons, markers, whatever you have)
Optional: If you don’t have any magazines you can use coloring book pages, clip art or whatever images you have on hand
Magazines, paper, scissors, glue or tape, drawing utensils (pencils, crayons, markers, whatever you have)
Optional: If you don’t have any magazines you can use coloring book pages, clip art or whatever images you have on hand
Look through some magazines, coloring books, or computer clip art to find some pictures that look symmetrical (the same on both sides like a butterfly or snowflake.) Good pictures are ones that you can cut in half and easily guess what’s on the other half by matching both sides. If you have the time to draw an image for your students, sketch a simple drawing of a butterfly, animal face or other symmetrical object.
Cut each picture in half right down the center. (Use a ruler or fold it first if you would like.)
Take your plain paper and fold it in half vertically or horizontally depending on what format your picture is.
Glue each half picture into one side of your folded paper. For right-handed students you may want to glue the left side of the picture half to the left side of the folded paper, and for left-handed students do the opposite.
Discussion
Before beginning the project, talk about matching and halves. Talk about how when you cover half of your face you can guess where the other eye is based on the one you can see. Look at pictures in books or magazines that show symmetry and see if you can guess what would be on the other side of each image when you cover half of it with a sheet of paper.
Before beginning the project, talk about matching and halves. Talk about how when you cover half of your face you can guess where the other eye is based on the one you can see. Look at pictures in books or magazines that show symmetry and see if you can guess what would be on the other side of each image when you cover half of it with a sheet of paper.
After you have discussed matching the left side with the right side, begin your project. Take time to guess where different shapes, lines and colors might be on the right side by looking carefully at the left side.
In this picture you could discuss the black and gold triangle shapes on the front of the watch band, and the light and dark rectangle shapes on the back. You could also discuss colors. Look for as many shapes and colors as you can and have the students finish the picture by matching what they draw with what they see.
In this picture you could discuss the lines and shapes of the face. Discuss what the shape of the eye looks like, and where the line of the neck would continue. The drawing doesn’t have to be perfect, but the students will practice looking closely at the shapes of the face and complete the picture using guesswork.
In this picture you could talk about matching colors and finishing the numbers on the clock. They can look at a real clock to see if they can match the missing numbers on the blank side of their project with the clock in front of them. They can practice left and right since the left and right sides of a clock are different.
For this picture you can practice right and left by having them guess which hand on their body matches the hand in the picture. They can then figure out which fingers are missing from the picture and finish the drawing.
There are many ways to incorporate basic knowledge in this project depending on what pictures you use in the end. It requires a little prep work but the project results may surprise you. Please upload your students’ work to our site so we can see the beautiful things they create while practicing matching and guesswork!