This week we are making art from light and shadows. This activity is very easy, needs only things you will have at home and makes no mess. It is also a really nice direct way for little ones to see how their actions have immediate effects; as they move about, their shadows move. This is a way to help them learn that they can take actions which do the things they want and that they have control over events or actions, what we call ‘self efficacy’ and ‘agency’. Both of these can help build their sense of self. This game is also nice for relationships as you can make up stories together and have each others shadows interact. For babies the high contrast of black and white is engaging. As always this activity is designed to be done together so don’t leave unsupervised children with lights.
you need:
- some white fabric like a sheet or a table cloth spread out between 2 chairs so there is a space where you can go behind the sheet.
- a spotlight, table lamp or torch aimed at the sheet
- a darkened room
- hands for making puppets and maybe some toys that will cast good shadows or card from your recycling to cut out your own.
Start by shining the light onto the front of the sheet and then you can sit in front and show wee ones how they can use their hands to cast shadows onto the fabric. You can play about at trying to make your hands look like animals. The easiest is to use your fingers to make some kind of beak or mouth and then your puppets can talk to each other. Or just see what different effects you can create together. Show them how putting their hands nearer or further from the light can change the size of the shadow. Babies especially will be happy to just look at the high contrast visuals they are getting from the shadows whereas toddlers and pre-schoolers might want to develop more of a story or ‘show’.
Once wee ones understand how it is working you could move the light behind the sheet to make it into more of a puppet theatre if you like. You could take turns showing each other an idea or get siblings involved in putting together a story for you to watch. Our pre-school aged tester really liked to have his ‘show’ filmed on a phone so he could then watch it back but sometimes you might prefer to just stay in the moment and focus on the game together.
You might like to add to your range of puppets. What about making some extra features from card to hold in their hands like we make an extra snake tongue here. Or you can add in some of their own toys to hold up and see what they create as a shadow. We are using play mobile figures and trees here. If you want to be really fancy you can use sticky tape to tape some toys to chop sticks so there is a handle to hold and it’s easier for them to keep their own shadow out of the way.
There are lots of different possibilities so have fun experimenting and seeing what engages little ones’ imaginations.