I am all about teachable moments. I’d like to think when Allie asks me questions, I somehow incorporate science into my answer. But then I have these moments of inspiration – especially around the holidays! And what better holiday to teach my kids about shadows but Groundhog’s Day?! This was also the perfect activity to start with the kids while I was making dinner (frozen pizza). Hey, you do what you’ve got to do at 6:00pm!
I made a quick shadow box using an old Amazon box and a flashlight. I cut a hole big enough for a flashlight which made a “stage” for her plastic animals. I love that Allie put a lamb and dinosaur standing under a giant heart together. I’m so glad they can put away their “Jurassic Park” differences to play shadows.
Of course, Allie got very excited about the flashlights in the dark so she decided to put on a fairy show. She thought her fairy shadow was pretty neat.
Andrew wanted to share in all the fun which meant sitting on the shadow box.
Then we decided to put some white paper up as a screen so she could trace the shadows. This time she made a scene with a lion, a lamb, and a cupcake. Classic.
The Science: Here are the things we discussed:
- Shadows are made when an object blocks out light.
- When the animals were close to the flashlight their shadows got bigger.
- When the animals got farther away from the light, their shadows got smaller.
- Then we talked about different ways shadows are made by the sun, like her shadow outside was when her body blocks the sunlight.
- Finally, we talked about how a tree’s shadow makes shade when the tree blocks the sunlight.
The pizza was almost done cooking so I showed the kids this great video about Groundhog’s Day. It’s super cute and I learned that woodchucks are groundhogs! I had no idea, did you? Happy Groundhog Day everyone!
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