Activity 2: Mirror Games

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Variety of handheld mirrors
• For Mirror Walk. Objects to create obstacles to walking, such as chairs, rubber safety cones, or empty cardboard boxes

Preparation for Activity

• Decide which mirror games you will use, depending on the group, the space, and the amount of time you have.
• For Mirror Walk. You will need a large, open space that you can purposely clutter with chairs, cones, or cardboard boxes to make an obstacle course.

Description of Activity

Participants explore the qualities of a mirror through active games in which they use their bodies in space.

Mirror Walk

Ask participants to try to walk backwards from one side of the area to the other, avoiding the obstacles you have placed and using only mirrors to see.

As a variation, assign each participant a partner who is allowed to talk and help the participants with the mirror. To make the obstacle course harder, have one participant walk backwards without a mirror, while two others accompany him/her on either side, each holding a mirror for the participant who is walking.

Mirror, Mirror

Form pairs, and instruct each pair to choose one person to be the mirror and one to be the actor. Let them start slow. You might suggest the actor improvise a dance or perform an action usually done in front of a mirror, like brushing teeth, or checking out their outfit. After a minute or so, direct them to switch roles.

Then introduce a change, such as:

• Be a fun house mirror.
• Exaggerate your partner’s movements instead of reflecting them.
• Be an “opposite” mirror . . . and so on.

After a while, let them abandon the switching back and forth, and try to initiate movement and reflect the movement of their partner at the same time.

Including All Participants

Mirror Walk. Partner a sight-limited participant with a child who can see, and have them walk backwards together; it may turn out that a child without sight is less unnerved by walking backwards than one who is used to seeing the path ahead.

A child with limited mobility for whom an obstacle course would be difficult or unsafe can take the role of calling advice to people who are trying to walk the course backwards.

Mirror, Mirror. A child who cannot see can mirror another child by keeping physical contact with his/her partner. You might engage the entire group to try this activity with fingertips, knees, and foreheads touching, so that every pair can experience this type of “mirroring.”