Mirror Fun!

I am planning a science and technology event for the families and children I work with at Little Champions in November.  I've been dreaming up activities and exhibits and this weekend we went to buy some resources.  One of things I've been planning is some mirror play.  I got a set of 4 star shaped acrylic mirrors (four different sizes) for £3.49 at The Range.  I also bought these colourful star shaped buttons for £1.25 from The Sewing Box at Halifax Borough Market.  Boy was very interested in these items and so I agreed he could test drive them!

He began using the buttons to make a pattern on the surface of the mirror.  High levels of engagement and concentration here!

At this point he wasn't interested in selecting different buttons for any purpose.  He wanted to fit all of them onto the mirror as close to each other as possible.  He finished and said 'look it's a jungle!'

 Placing objects onto the surface of a mirror gives a really aesthetically pleasing result.  It also gives children the opportunity to explore reflection.  I plan to get some rectangular mirrors and tape two together and then stand them up so that you can see reflections in more directions.  I had a go myself and Boy took some pictures of me.

Here's my design.

He noticed that I had been selective about the buttons I had chosen and he did the same.  He decided to only use blue and white buttons at first and then asked if we had any more buttons.  I got my box of spare buttons out and he chose some wooden ones from there to use as well.

I asked him if he enjoyed this and he said 'yes because I'm in the pattern, behind it and I like that!'  I really enjoyed doing this too and it was a great way of getting a child to really think and concentrate as it is so fascinating.