Students can build language and writing skills and learn about mirror reflections by experimenting with mirrors and print. Provide students with samples of print from newspapers and magazines and invite them to study the way mirrors present the text. After the students recognize that mirrors reflect words and designs backwards, they can write their names from back to front, hold the names up to mirrors to observe the names displayed in proper order. They can then experiment with mirrors and writing by holding a mirror over their papers while forming words and pictures.
Experimenting with contrasting mirror shapes will demonstrate to students how the shape of mirrors affects the objects they reflect. Provide students with spoons and explain to them how the inside of a spoon works as a concave mirror while the outside works as a convex mirror. They can look into the inside of a spoons and notice how their facial features appear larger. They might also find small objects around the classroom to test in the concave mirrors. Ask students how they think facial features will appear on the outside, or convex, sides of spoons. They can reflect their faces and other objects in the outsides of spoons and observe them growing larger.
Lines of symmetry create a divide between two identical patterns. Students can use mirrors as lines of symmetry to observe and create symmetrical patterns. They can draw half of a design on a paper and then place a mirror upright in the middle of the page. While looking straight down on the paper, the students will see the exact pattern reflected on the blank side of the paper. Students can also hold objects, such as small action figures or puzzle pieces up to mirrors, creating a symmetrical reflection.
Have a discussion with students about the way colors form from reflected light. Experiment with this phenomenon using a shallow bin with water, a mirror and sunlight. Place the bin in direct sunlight and tilt a flat mirror in the bin with its top edge leaning out of the water. As light hits the water, it will bend and separate into colors of a rainbow. You can then discuss with students how black absorbs all colors while white doesn't absorb any.