1st Grade: Fall Reflections

This fall themed project is so much fun to do with the young kids, and is also great for learning about reflection and symmetry! The students and I looked at this photo of fall trees reflecting on the water.

We discussed what we saw in the photo, about how we knew there was water in front of the trees and why we see the images of the trees repeated on the water.

The students created their fall landscape using tempera paints. I demonstrated how we can fold a piece of paper in half to transfer the image onto the other side. The students painted the grass and trees one class. The next class they used blue watercolor to add the sky and water colors. We then went over top of all of that with fall colors to make the leaves on the trees. The students and I talked about how it was important to continue folding the paper before the paint dries to transfer the image.

These paintings tuned out beautiful! Some were even a bit abstract.