Perspectives: Shadows

The Giraffe is Blue!”

Week of October 6^th, 2013

The children have been continuing their exploration of shadows by discovering different techniques to change the size of shadows. This week we have been exploring what happens when colorful transparent objects are placed onto the projector alongside the solid objects that create shadows. Our big question that we were exploring: Why do some objects produce shadows, while other objects produce color?

We started off by placing a transparent color block onto the projector. The children were very excited about the colors that appeared on the screen and would enthusiastically name each color as they appeared. Many of the children were interested in the effect that the blocks had when they held them up to their eyes and looked around.

After we explored with the new colorful block materials, I began to ask them questions like: “How come this orange dinosaur doesn’t show up orange on our screen? This red block shows red on the screen, why doesn’t the dinosaur?” “What color is your shadow?” As we explored this new concept, they could not yet articulate an answer, however they were obviously thinking hard about the phenomena. Many of them would look back and forth from the object to its shadow or to the color that showed up on the screen. And although they did not verbally communicate their thinking, their nonverbal communication was obvious.

 

I would like to see how they will explore this concept further by providing another opportunity to solve the question: Why do some objects produce shadows, while other objects produce color?