Learn how to draw elf legs like these and you will be guaranteed a drawing that fills the paper. It will also give young artists some really good symmetrical drawing practice.

When I first tried this project, some students (even 4th and 5th grade) would get stuck in drawing the second symmetrical shoe. I believe it’s because of all the curves, which are in general hard shapes for kids to draw, let alone trying to match a flipped version.

My tutorial takes aim to address that issue by having students break those funky shoes into smaller, symmetrical steps. Instead of drawing one whole shoe and then trying to match all of it, I suggest that they draw matching tops, then matching heels, then matching toes. It’s much easier to get your head around the shapes that way.

If younger students want to try this (say grade 2 and below) my solution is to include a shoe template (page 2 of the download) so teachers can turn this into a tracing and flipping project. It still illustrates the idea of symmetry and lets

MATERIALS