Light & Shadows in Preschool
Virtual Workshop #2 in 2020-2021 Preschool STEM Workshop Series

Saturday, Jan. 23rd, 9-10am Eastern


Topic: Light and shadow in preschool, including the what and why, virtual learning considerations, and activity ideas.

Registration Required

Check our website or follow us on Facebook for more information. Approved for professional development hours in TN by DHS.




 

Just Published!

How can we get the light from this flashlight to the target, using at least 3 different objects? Read about how 1st graders tackled this engineering challenge in our article published in the Jan/Feb 2021 edition of NSTA's Science & Children.
 

Trace a Shadow

• If doing this outside, take some chalk and find a sunny spot on some pavement.
• If you are indoors, gather paper, writing utensils, a light source, and objects such as blocks or cars if you aren't tracing body parts.

• Have children find a spot where they can see a shadow, notice the changes that occur when they change positions or angles.
• Help the children decide what to trace. 
• Ask: Where is the shadow? What happens if you face this direction? 

• Invite the children to trace their shadow using chalk.
• Show them how to trace by locating your hand's shadow and tracing it. 
• As the children to trace their own shadow using the chalk or work with a partner to outline their body. 
• Ask: What can a shadow tell us about a person? What can't it tell us?
• Ask: Why do shadows show some things and not others?
• If children are interested, trace other objects.
• Support tracing activities as needed.

• Possible questions to ask
  • How can you make the shadow larger? Smaller?
• Allow the children to explore making different shapes to trace.
• Help children connect the materials they are using, their properties, and the shadows they are seeing.
  • Ask: What can you tell about the object from its shadow?

• Consider extending learning to a different time of day. Outdoors, encourage children to stand where they had traced their shadow. Help them notice the changes that have occurred to their shadow and why that may have happened. Indoors, leave the paper in the same spot and return at a different time. What has changed? What has caused this change?
• What else can we explore with shadows? Shapes? Letters?

 

Books for Kids
 

Light and shadow books for kids.




The Black Rabbit, by Philippa Leathers
 
Rabbit is being chased everywhere he goes by a large black rabbit! Follow him as he tries to lose his nemesis. 






My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Learn about shadows and all the fun things you can do with them. 






Blackout, by John Rocco 
Follow Violet as she pursues her passion in engineering in aviation, while coping with the social and emotional challenges of other children being mean to her because she's different, and how she responds.






On the Web

• Video: Small group on shadows with preschoolers, from the Teacher's Toolkit, by PNC. Check out link between light and shadows and children's inquiry in the video entitled, "Inquiry Learning Part 2: Using Science Inquiry Learning in Your Classroom."
   

• Light and shadow - curriculum activities Set of activity ideas and resources in this PDF from Massachusetts Department of Education, and Clarendon Early Education Services, Inc.

• 3 weeks of light and shadow activities Set of activity ideas described by Denise Nelson in her blog  on NAEYC's website.

Image from PNC Grow Up Great