Prepare pieces of paper for your students to make snowflakes. The shape of the paper depends on the age of the class. Children in kindergarten and the first few grades should start with square pieces, whereas older children can work with paper cut in the shape of a hexagon.
Fold the paper several times. The number of folds depends on the level of the students. Younger children should only fold their paper once crosswise, then once in length, to create a square a one-fourth the size of the original square. Older students working with hexagons can fold their paper into sixths, to create a pie-shaped triangle.
Cut shapes and patterns out of the folded paper, cutting through all the layers of the folded paper. To teach basic symmetry, the cut-out patterns should not be too ornate, but they should be complex enough that it is challenging to predict what the unfolded snowflake will look like.
Ask the students to draw a picture of what they think the finished snowflake will look like. Remind them that the pattern repeats four to six times, depending on which shape they started with.
Unfold the papers to reveal the full snowflakes. Ask the students to identify the lines of symmetry and draw them directly on their snowflakes. Explain the differences between line symmetry, which occurs when the papers are simply folded in half, and rotational symmetry, which is when the patterns look the same while rotating the snowflake.