Here are some things to think about and do as we start the unit on curved mirrors. These questions can be answered by simple investigations that will only take a few minutes.  Please do them all.
Note that the bowl-shaped plastic mirror in your kit may have a plastic film on it, to protect it from being scratched. This should be removed.

1. Observe the reflection of yourself from various distances on both sides of the bowl-shaped mirror (which we will call a spherical mirror, because it is part of a reflecting sphere).  When we are looking into the bowl, we will call it a concave mirror, while when looking at the other side, we will call it a convex mirror.  Describe your observations for each side. Both sides of the mirror will produce a right-side-up reflection of your eye.  Describe where to hold the mirror to get this upright reflection, for each side. Will both sides produce an upside-down reflection?
2. Also in your kit is a sheet of aluminized plastic.  Investigating this may remind you of fun-house mirrors. Tape it in a few places to a wall and change its shape by adding bumpy objects underneath (tacks, or pencils taped to the wall).  Adjust its shape to produce reflections of yourself that make you thin or fat, tall or short.  What do you have to do to produce each effect?
3. Cut a piece of the aluminized plastic from your kit about 4" x 8", and roll it up into a tube of diameter about 1" (and 4" tall).  We will need this tube in the next activity; but look at your reflection in it now. People always ignore the reflections made by a small diameter tube, because the are hard to interpret!  We could call this a convex cylindrical mirror.
4. There are many curved reflecting surfaces around the house and school.  Please list some of these, and classify each one as resembling most closely a convex spherical mirror, a concave spherical mirror, a convex cylindrical mirror, or a concave cylindrical mirror.

All done?