Submitted by Sandy Bacon (lesson from
Jan Federenko)
Unit: Reflection/Balance/Symmetry -Math Integration -Science
Integration
Lesson: Making a Simple Film Canister Kaleidoscope
This is a lesson plan that Sandy got when she attended a
workshop at The Columbus Museum of Art organized by Jan
Federenko. Her resource was craftsforkids.about.com.
Alternate
Kaleidoscope Lesson Ideas
Try this online Kaleidoscope
Painter - Lots of fun!
Materials:
Clear 35mm film container with lid
Mirrored paper board (sheet Mylar can be purchased and bent as
well)
Stiff clear plastic disk or plastic wrap
Flower shaped cake sprinkles or anything that would make an
interesting (assortment of sequins might be nice)
Design for the kaleidoscope
Tape
Art materials to decorate the outside of the container.
Objectives:
See alternate
lessons - tie in with math and science
Instructions:
- Using a clear film container, drill a
hole about a 1/4" in diameter in the bottom. This
is the eyehole. (do this ahead of time)
- Cut a piece of mirror board 1
3/4" by 3" and fold it to make a
triangle with the mirror side to the inside. (Silver Mylar
works too)
- Tape it to hold the triangle shape.
- Insert triangle inside the film
container.
- Next, put about 6 -7 sprinkles in the
indention of the inside of the lid and cover it with a piece
of stiff plastic the size of a quarter or plastic wrap will
also work.
- Place on the lid of the container.
- Point it up into the light and turn.
You may need to adjust the amount of sprinkles if they do
not move or if there is not enough to make a good
design inside the kaleidoscope like confetti, small
beads and colorful pieces of paper or crayon shavings.
- Have students decorate the outside of
their mini-kaleidoscopes.
- The possibilities are endless. Maybe
have student draw the designs they see.
Incredible Art Department is interested in
seeing a decorated student kaleidoscope and a project that you
do using the Kaleidoscope.
Alternate
Kaleidoscope Lesson Ideas
From Susan Holland:
I went to a workshop once on how to make
kaleidoscopes with black film canisters (2) and microscope
slides (3). Three slides arranged in a triangle will fit long
ways inside the two canisters- this forms the reflective surface
inside. The slides can just be wedged in there and the two
canisters can be taped together with black electrical tape. That
much of the idea worked really well. The really tricky part was
getting the eye hole in the bottom of one film canister and the
large hole in the bottom of the other. Then they used a clear
plastic yogurt lid and glued on small tissue paper shapes. This
was to make a wheel to turn- as I recall, a straight pin was
pushed through the center of the lid and then the pin was taped
to the side if the canister with more black tape. This part of
the mechanism was less than satisfactory.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to make
cutting film canisters easier and on how to better resolve the
"turning colored shapes" part?
Sue found a better version of this on-line
at Kids
Domain Crafts
(link below).
This version uses one black and one clear
canister, and although the construction works better, they
missed the tip about using microscope slides, which are the
perfect size for the reflectors. And no discussion of
kaleidoscopes is complete without a link to http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html
the on-line kaleidoscope painter
Advice from Judy: Pre-drill all of the
holes. Drill bits are available in all sorts of sizes. The
things that are hard for you will be even harder for the kids.
Again...drill a small hole ahead of time through the Yogurt lid
to ease turning. Use one of the pins with a round head so it
won't pull through the hole. (One of these links is for the
Kaleidoscope She described).
