I showed the students how to create bilateral symmetry by looking at images of beetles for references and folding the photo in quarters along the center of the beetle. They did the same thing with their black paper and using pencils, free-hand drew the beetles. This is a great mind exercise, it's difficult to draw symmetrically and most students found it challenging but fun.
After their drawings were completed, they had to use regular and metallic oil pastels to create high contrast, colorful beetle images. For the coloring, they had the option of replicating the pattern that was on the beetle of their selected photograph or they could create their own. The focus again was on symmetry.
Once they finished the coloring process, the student glued their art onto a large colorful piece of paper. Then, they selected a small section of the beetle pattern that they enjoy and replicated that on the border using repetition.
I absolutely LOVE the way that these turned out and I got good feedback from the students, so I'm a happy teacher.