Put on a Shadow Play

Explain to your child that together, you will be exploring shadows, and that a shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque (not see through) object. If you are outside on a sunny morning or a late afternoon and see you shadow, then the light source is the sun and you are the opaque object. Other objects like playgrounds and trees have shadows too. Talk through a few questions together.

• What other places you can stand to make your shadow appear? (Examples: Sun, flashlight, lamp, lamppost)
• Can you see more of your shadow when the light is coming from the side or above you? What time of day is your shadow the longest?
• What time of day is your shadow the shortest? Why do you think that is?

Print out the sheet of Nature Cat, Hal, Squeeks and Daisy pictures and their support bases and glue the entire page to a cereal box or other cardboard. Let the glue dry.

Cut out the pictures of Nature Cat, Hal, Squeeks and Daisy and their support bases again, with the cardboard. Be sure to cut the small lines in the base and the base support.

Slide the base support into the base for each character so that the character can stand up.

Go into a room where the lights are turned off and sunlight is limited. Place a flashlight on the floor approximately two feet from a blank wall. Turn on the flashlight so that the beam shines on the wall.

Place one of the characters into the beam of light. Can you see the character’s shadow on the wall? Yes! You can see the shadow because the character is now blocking a portion of the light from reaching the wall. The area where the light is blocked creates a shadow and the rest of the light is still reaching the wall.

Place a second character between the flashlight and the wall. Can you see both of their shadows? Now try moving one character closer to the flashlight and leaving another character closer to the wall. You will see that the character closer to the flashlight has a bigger shadow. The character further from the flashlight and closer to the wall will have a smaller shadow. This is because the character closer to the flashlight is blocking more of the light from the flashlight and letting less light pass by to reach the wall.

Experiment with other light sources. What happens if you have a larger or smaller flashlight? What shadows can you see from an overhead light? What shadows can you see if you take the characters out in the sun during the morning or afternoon? Can you make the shadows bigger or smaller based on where there are in comparison to the light source?

Use the characters to put on a shadow play. You can move the characters closer to or further from the light to show them coming towards something or walking away from something.