Science · Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6
Shadow puppets
A shadow puppet your child made, and a shadow they can make twice as big on purpose.
Your child cuts a puppet from card, stands it between a torch and a wall, and finds out how to make the shadow grow without changing the puppet. From 3–4 they measure to check.
- Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6
- 40 min
- A printout
- On the screen
Free to sign up.
Is it a good fit?
- Ready if Your child can cut out a simple shape and hold a stick still.
- Too much today? The 1–2 level: bigger and smaller, then a story.
- Too easy? The 5–6 level: three distances measured, and the rule.
What your child practises
- How light makes shadows
- Changing one thing
- Measuring to check
“When I hold it near the torch, the shadow gets huge.”
If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.
Your part
- Find thin card, a torch and a pale wall
- Draw the curtains
- Prop up the phone's light if there is no torch
What you need
From home
- Thin card, like a cereal box, and a pencil
- Scissors and tape
- Sticks, straws or pencils, and a lump of play dough to stand each one in
- A torch, and a pile of books to rest it on
- A pale wall, or a white sheet hung up
- A ruler, a strip of paper and a sheet to write on, for measuring from 3–4
The steps
Grade 1–2
Draw a simple shape on the card, as big as your hand: an animal, a tree, a house. Just the outline: a shadow shows only that.
Draw a simple shape on the card, as big as your hand: an animal, a tree, a house. Just the outline: a shadow shows only that.The other 4 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: The shadow gets bigger and smaller, and you can say how you made it.
Grade 3–4
- Draw a simple shape on the card, as big as your hand: an animal, a tree, a house. Just the outline: a shadow shows only that.
The other 4 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: The shadow is twice as tall as the puppet, and nothing about the puppet changed.
Grade 5–6
- Draw a simple shape on the card, as big as your hand: an animal, a tree, a house. Just the outline: a shadow shows only that.
The other 4 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: Twice as tall, and three measurements that show how the distance changes the shadow.
Safety
Use a battery torch, never a candle or a hot lamp. Shine it at the wall, not into anyone's eyes. Make the room darker with curtains rather than turning off every light, so nobody trips. Your child uses scissors from 1–2, beside you.
Where the facts come from
More like this
The full design
What it is
A shape cut from thin card and taped to a stick, stood in play dough between a torch resting on books and a pale wall in a darker room, so its shadow falls on the wall. Then the question: how do you make the shadow bigger without changing the puppet? The screen gathers the things, shows one step at a time as a painting of that step, and asks at the end. The puppet and its shadow are the make.
How it goes
One step fills the screen: the painted plate of that step, the words under it, and two buttons. Done this step moves on. Too hard, skip it also moves on, and the finish says how many were skipped without dressing it up. At the end, Show asks what is true (I made the shadow bigger, the shadow was twice as big), and What I learned asks the band's question.
The Pet
Asks at each step: "Closer to the torch. Then closer to the wall. Watch." Notices: "Twice as tall. And the puppet did not change at all." Remembers across the two sittings. When an answer points the wrong way, it asks for one more try rather than correcting.
By band
1 to 2: your child makes a puppet, finds that moving it towards the torch makes the shadow grow, and tells a story with two. 3 to 4: the must is a shadow twice as tall as the puppet, checked by measuring both. 5 to 6: the shadow is measured with the puppet at three distances, and your child says the rule.
What it grows
First-grade science asks children to show that objects in the path of light make shadows; the upper grades ask for fair tests. Moving one thing, the puppet, while the torch and the wall stay put is a fair test a child can see working.
Done, and what counts as evidence
Done = the steps done or honestly skipped, and one line chosen at the end. The evidence is the shadow your child can make bigger and smaller on purpose, and from 3 to 4 the measurements that check it: a claim tested with a ruler.
What's personal
Your child's shapes, measurements and answers are stored as their answer, not as a mark. Nothing about your home is stored. A material you do not have is named once, a substitute is offered, and the project carries on.