Shadow Monsters
Word of the day: shadow
“Let's turn the lights off and make a monster that's bigger than the whole family.”
Grab
- a flashlight or phone light
- a blank wall
- hands, a toy figure, a fork
Do
- Turn off the lights. Shine the flashlight at the wall. Put a hand in the way.
- Move the hand close to the flashlight. Then close to the wall. Which shadow is bigger?
- Make animal shapes: a bird with two hands, a dog with a thumb up.
- Shine through a clear glass, a fork, and a sheet of paper. Which make dark shadows?
The big moment
Lights off, hand near the flashlight: the monster fills the wall.
Ask (guess first, then try)
- How do you make the shadow huge?
- Why can't light go through your hand?
What's going on (for you)
Light travels in straight lines. Anything that blocks it leaves a dark patch behind. Close to the light, your hand blocks a wide cone of light, so the shadow is big; close to the wall it blocks only a little, so the shadow shrinks to hand size.
If they want more
Outside on a sunny morning, trace their shadow with chalk, then check it again at lunch. The sun moved, so the shadow did too.