Worksheet Grade 1 Art & Music
Milkweed Pond's Mirror Picture: A Reflection Worksheet
A grade 1 art worksheet where students fold a page at the water line, draw a tree and cloud above it, and mirror both below to show a pond reflection.
Objectives
- Students will draw a mirrored copy of a shape below a water line.
- Students will explain that still water reflects better than moving water.
- Students will write or dictate one fact about a pond.
Vocabulary
Key words: reflection, mirror, still, fold
Teacher overview
Rain that falls on the hill above Milkweed Pond runs downhill and collects there, and on a calm day that collected water works as a mirror. This worksheet uses the mirror to teach one drawing idea first graders can carry into any picture with water in it: whatever stands above the water line appears again below it, upside down and the same size.
The fold is the main teaching tool on this page. Once the top drawing is done, students can fold the top half back behind the bottom half, hold the paper up to a window, and see their own top drawing showing through in the right spot underneath, which is a stronger correction than anything written in a margin. Read every item aloud, one at a time, and give students time to finish the drawing before reading the next. Items 7 and 9 are the two that separate students who copied a shape from students who understand what a reflection does, so scan those two answers when you collect the page.
Expect the upside-down step to be the hard one. Many students draw the same tree twice, both right side up. A quick fix is to have the student turn the whole page around, draw the second tree the easy way, and then turn the page back.
Student Worksheet
Read each step with your teacher. Then do it.
- Fold your paper in half so the fold runs straight across the middle. Open it flat. The fold is the top of the pond.
- Draw one tall tree above the fold.
- Draw the same tree below the fold. Turn it upside down. That is the tree's reflection.
- Draw one cloud above the fold.
- Draw the same cloud below the fold. Turn it upside down.
- Color the sky light blue. Color the pond dark blue.
- Look at your two trees. Is the tree below the fold the same size as the tree above it? Write yes or no.
- Draw one duck on the fold line.
- Still water makes the best mirror. Circle the word that helps a pond do it: WIND or CALM.
- Write one fact about a pond. Start like this: A pond holds ___.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: a page folded in half with the fold running across the middle. The fold line stands for the top of the water, so everything above it is land and sky and everything below it is pond.
- Answer: one tall tree drawn above the fold. Accept any tree shape; height matters here only because a tall shape makes the mirrored copy easy to check.
- Answer: the same tree drawn upside down below the fold. The trunk should touch the fold line and the branches should point down toward the bottom of the page.
- Answer: one cloud drawn above the fold, anywhere in the sky.
- Answer: the same cloud drawn upside down below the fold, straight beneath the first cloud rather than off to one side.
- Answer: light blue above the fold and dark blue below it. Two different blues make the water line easy to see, which is the point of the item.
- Answer: yes. A reflection shows the object at the same size, so the tree below the fold should match the tree above it.
- Answer: one duck drawn sitting on the fold line. A duck floats on the surface, so it belongs on the line itself rather than above or below it.
- Answer: CALM. Calm water is still and gives a clear mirror, while wind makes ripples that break the picture apart.
- Answer: a sentence naming one fact about a pond, such as "A pond holds rain that ran down the hill." Accept any true fact about water collecting, fish, ducks, or plants, written or dictated.
Differentiation
Support
Pre-fold the page and draw the tree trunk's starting point on both sides of the fold so the student only has to complete the shape. Let students trace the top drawing onto the bottom half by folding the paper over and pressing hard with a crayon. For item 10, offer two finished sentences to choose from and have the student copy one.
Extension
Ask students to add one shape that does not have a reflection, such as a fish under the water, and to write one sentence explaining why that shape appears only once. Students who finish early can add a second tree of a different height and check that its reflection matches.
ELL supports
Show a photograph of a still pond alongside a photograph of the same kind of pond on a windy day before handing out the page, and name still, calm, and wind while pointing. Provide picture cues beside items 2, 4, and 8 so the drawing task is clear without reading. Accept item 10 dictated in a student's home language with one English word added during scribing.