Shadow Theater

Little levels (ages 4 to 6)

1. Lights on! Switch the lamp on and find the bunny's shadow.
2. Which side? Guess which side the shadow will fall on, then see.
3. Move the light Drag the lamp to put the shadow on the star.
4. Big and small Bring the lamp closer and the shadow grows.
5. Up and down Lower the lamp and the shadow climbs.
6. Shadow match Which toy made this shadow?
7. See-through? Guess whether a glass, a lantern and a book make shadows.

Big levels (ages 7 to 9)

1. Shadow on target Fit the shadow inside a box by moving the lamp in three directions.
2. Two toys, one lamp Land two shadows on two targets at once.
3. Twice as tall Use a tape measure to make the shadow exactly two bears tall.
4. Sun clock Drag the sun across the sky to make long and short shadows.
5. Colored shadows Two colored lamps make a red shadow and a blue shadow.
6. Soft or sharp? A big lantern makes blurry shadow edges.
7. Materials lab Sort five things into opaque, translucent and transparent.

The big ideas

• A shadow is where light is blocked. Light travels in straight lines. Where an object stops it, the surface behind stays dark, and the dark patch has the object's outline.

• Shadows move the opposite way from the light. Move the lamp left and the shadow slides right. Lower the lamp and the shadow climbs the wall.

• A close light makes a big shadow. The shadow is the object scaled up around the lamp. If the lamp is twice as far from the screen as the object, the shadow is twice as tall.

• The sun is a lamp that moves. Low morning and evening sun makes long shadows; the high midday sun makes short ones. A sundial reads the time from the shadow.

• Two lamps make colored shadows. Where an object blocks only the red lamp, the blue lamp still lands, so that shadow looks blue. Where both are blocked, it is dark.

• Big lights make soft shadows. Every point of a big light source casts its own shadow, and the edges overlap into a blur. Materials are opaque, translucent or transparent depending on how much light gets through.

Try it at home

1. Flashlight theater In a dark room, stand a toy in front of a wall and shine a flashlight at it. Move the flashlight closer, farther, up and down, and talk about what the shadow does.
2. Shadow puppets Make a bunny or a dog with your hands between the flashlight and the wall. Try it with the light close and far away.
3. Chalk the shadow On a sunny morning, trace a friend's shadow with chalk. Come back at lunch and again before dinner and compare.
4. See-through sort Collect a book, a plastic bottle, a leaf and a tissue. Hold each one up to a window and sort them into blocks light, lets some through, and see-through.

Ask after playing

• If the lamp is on your left, which side is your shadow on?
• How could you make your shadow taller than you?
• Why is your shadow long in the evening and short at lunchtime?