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Materials - Reflections
Objectives
To consolidate understanding of how materials can be used (for a mirror).
Resources
A window accessible from both sides | A mirror on a wall | 📄 Reflective buildings images | A small, unbreakable mirror | 📄 Mirror worksheet | Large (A3) paper in black, blue and white | Roll of kitchen foil
Vocabulary
dark | glass | light | material | mirror | pane | Perspex | reflect | reflection | shiny | smooth | window
Today's Lesson
Introduction
Ask your student what materials they think the windows around the house are made of.
Ask: ‘What makes glass (Perspex) good for windows?’
Your student should be led round to knowing (if they don’t already) that glass is good for windows because it lets in light so we can see through the windows.
Show your student a large mirror (attached to or hanging from a wall) and ask them how a window is like a mirror and how it is different.
Your student should understand, by the end of this discussion:
- Both might be made of glass.
- You might be able to see your reflection in both.
- You can see your reflection better in the mirror.
- You can’t see through the mirror because it doesn’t let light through it.
Show your student the 📄 Reflective buildings images. Ask them to describe the buildings in the photographs.
Ask: ‘In what ways are these buildings different from your home and other homes nearby?’
Draw attention to the reflections. Ask: ‘What is reflected in the buildings?’
Discuss what the buildings might be made of and why they reflect their surroundings. Ask your student it they think that objects are the same as their reflections.
Main Activity
Take your student to look at the windows in your home (or wherever you are learning). Ask them to see whether they can see their faces in any of the windows.
Introduce the word ‘reflection’ by telling them that this is what we call something we see when we look into an object that reflects the light back into our eyes.
Ask why we can see our reflection in some windows but not others.
Ask: ‘Which windows are like mirrors?’ Look again at the windows that are like mirrors and ask them what makes them like this.
Take your student to look at a window that has bright light on one side, but a darker place on the other (for example, on a dark afternoon or morning when the lights inside are on). Let them look at the window from both sides.
Ask: ‘On which side can you see your reflection? Why do you think this is?’
Ask your student to look at the window again from the side on which they cannot see their reflection.
They could then examine an unbreakable mirror to find out how different it is from a window.
Point out that we cannot see through a mirror and ask your student why not. Point out the coating that prevents this.
Ask: ‘What can we do to change a window so that we can see our reflections in it? How could we make it into a mirror?’
Show your student the 📄 Mirror worksheet and the different types of paper mentioned in Resources.
Encourage your student to try covering part of the window with each material and then to look at the other side of it.
Ask: ‘Which material makes the best back for a mirror?’
To record their findings, they can cut a small piece of each material and stick it onto the sheet in order from worst to best.
Consolidate
Discuss with your student that we can see through a window but not a mirror and that, if we change a window by putting something behind it that we cannot see through, we can make it into a mirror.
Discuss again which materials worked best.
Extra Challenge
Your student could look at some reflections made in water and find out which colour is the best for the bottom of a small tray of water, to make this into a mirror.
They could use trays of different colours: pale green, white, dark brown, black, and so on.