Mirror Play

Our world is reflected to us in many different ways, and when children, and adults for that matter, begin to look at the world through different perspectives, their minds are opened up to many possibilities.  What better way to begin reflecting about the world and self, than playing with mirrors. Children can see themselves from different points of view, it helps build a positive self image, they can experience emotion through dramatic play in front of a mirror, there is also an awareness of light and reflected light scattering in many different directions.  There are so many   opportunities for discovery with mirrors and even the possibility of making the impossible a reality as we will see later in this post.

I was very excited to find a supplier that has a reasonable price on acrylic mirrors so that all the children would have one to play with.  You can find them at www.discountschoolsupply.com for hours of playtime with the kids, and I also have to add a link to the blog that recommended this supplier, Caution! twins at play, a great blog for more ideas of play with mirrors.

Many of the children gravitated to the mirrors right away, especially placing a couple together and seeing multiple images of themselves and their play toys.

I have to add in here that my assistant and myself were equally excited to play with the mirrors, so we were all having a ball.

 When I was a child, I would walk around the house with a mirror in front of me and "walk on the ceiling," a game we have enjoyed at school as well.  When outside playtime came around, it was time to take a walk, this time not on the ceiling, but on the sky!  Here is when the impossible became possible.  As the children walked around, they saw themselves walking on the sky, on tree branches, and as they pointed out to me, they were walking on wires as well.

He is walking on a tight rope in the sky.

These walkers observed that "their feet are walking above their heads!" 

 This student began pressing the mirror in the snow and looking at the marks and how they changed  direction in the mirror.

The raindrops on the mirrors added another element of discovery.

I can't wait to do this when there are blue skies and clouds so they can jump on the clouds!