Since it’s snowing here in Colorado, I doubt any groundhogs will be seeing their shadow today. We can still have fun with shadows, even though I’m quite sure that Colorado is in for at least six more months of winter.
Hand shadow puppets are easy and fun. All you need is a dark room, a flashlight or two and your hands. You can take turns shining the flashlight onto each other hands so that your hands make a dark spot on the wall. Or you can prop up the flashlight so it shines on the wall and put your hands in front of it. Experiment with the distance of your hands to the light and the light to wall until you get a clear shadow image. If you have an overhead projector it’s even easier – but not at all necessary. Flashlights really do work fine.
You can make all sorts of animals by changing the position of your hands and fingers. You can make a bunny complete with cotton tale, goats, geese, pigs, flying birds, all kinds of dogs, and even people. If you never did this as a child, or if you want to be to inspired you might want to check out books like Me and My Shadows – Shadow Puppet Fun for Kids of All Ages, Fun With Hand Shadows, or The Art of Hand Shadows.
Shadow puppets figures are an alternative to using your fingers and hands to cast shadows. For these, cut out basic outline shapes from dark paper of dragons, monsters, people, props like house or trees, or whatever you want. If you make tiny holes for the creatures eyes, it looks like their eyes are glowing! Shine the flashlight on the paper figure and you’ll have a fun shadow.
Once your children figure out the basics, it’s easy to put on a whole puppet show. You’ll be amazed what fun creatures they can come up!
Also See:
Activities That Teach #8 – Flashlight Fun!