The Badge Archive

Symmetrical Patterns

Activity Description: Scouts explore symmetry and pattern by cutting, tracing, observing, and creating artwork.

  • Fulfills Step 3 of GSUSA Brownie Art and Design badge requirements.
  • Fulfills Step 3 of GSUSA Junior Art and Design badge requirements.

Info Needed for Brownie Step 3: Art composition is how artists arrange the different parts of their artwork, like shapes, colors, and lines, to make it look balanced and interesting. It’s like organizing a room so everything fits together nicely and catches your eye. Art composition is about the overall design and layout.

Info Needed for Junior Step 3: Patterns are the repetition of a design element, such as lines, shapes, or colors, to create a decorative effect. Patterns make art interesting because they create a rhythm, just like a song has a beat. Artists use patterns to help our eyes move around the artwork.

Symmetry is when something looks the same on both sides, like a butterfly’s wings. Imagine drawing a line down the middle of a picture, and both sides look like mirror images of each other. Artists use symmetry to make their pictures look balanced and pleasing to the eye. It’s like when you fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a heart shape and both sides of the heart look the same.

Items Needed:

  • Paper (at least two sheets per scout)
  • Pencils
  • Scissors
  • Chosen medium (crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, or collage materials)

Instructions (Estimated Total Time: 20–30 min):

  1. Make a Symmetrical Heart (5–7 min)
    • Fold a paper in half.
    • Draw half a heart along the fold and cut it out.
    • Unfold it to reveal the full heart and observe the matching sides (symmetry).
    • Notice the heart shape as positive space and the empty space it came from as negative space.
  2. Create a Pattern with the Heart (5 min)
    • Trace the heart multiple times on a second piece of paper to make a repeating pattern.
    • Try turning or flipping the heart each time to create a design.
  3. Pattern & Symmetry Scavenger Hunt (5 min)
    • Scouts look around the room to spot examples of patterns (stripes, plaid) or symmetry (mirrored shapes or pairs).
    • (Optional) Try a mirror game with a partner. One scout moves slowly, the other mirrors them.
  4. Create Final Art with Pattern or Symmetry (8–12 min)
    • Using their chosen medium, scouts design an artwork that includes either:
      • Repeating patterns
      • Symmetry
      • Or both
    • They can draw, color, or make a collage using shapes, textures, and space creatively.
Tia Kennard