EYFS Activities - We’ve explored… shadows

Lighting is an important aspect in our Reggio Emilia-inspired setting. We give a lot of thought to creating beautiful spaces and ensuring the lighting produces a calm, focused environment. We rely on natural light, lamps and projections to give the children plenty of opportunities to explore light, dark and shadow.

The contrast between light and dark intrigues the children. For them, dark places can be scary but also offer security – the notion of a dark city provoked fear in some, while a den was deemed safe because it was dark inside.

STORYTELLING

After observing the children’s investigations, I decided to create a dark space in the Atelier using heavy velvet cloth, and provided mirrors, torches and colour films. Children were delighted to discover the den and quickly started to tell dramatic stories using the torches. Their references to light and dark within the tales were fascinating.

The den was very popular, so I helped the children create a bigger, tent-like construction. I put an overhead projector (OHP) at the side to add an extra means of exploring light.

Their storytelling developed, incorporating the colour of the OHP projections and including stories of pirates and golden treasure. One little girl, Hazel, used the torches as characters in her story, so my thoughts turned to puppets.

PUPPET-MAKING

We regularly encourage the children to do observational drawings to foster their observation skills and deepen their understanding of a subject. I wanted the children to focus on the human form before making puppets, so I encouraged them to draw artist models.

The next day I provided materials to make puppets – simple cardboard shapes; beautiful, inspiring fabrics in various textures and colours; and lace, buttons, feathers and pom-poms.

Some children had a clear idea of what they wanted to create – for example, Evelyn wanted to make her baby brother. Others were inspired by the materials, with Olive thinking the stripy fabric looked like a pirate top.

Their scissor skills and determination when working with the collage materials was impressive. Imogen created a giraffe, cleverly using a longer strip of fabric for its neck and making a hole in its head through which to hang a string for ease of movement.

SHADOW SHOWS

I suggested that the children try to operate the puppets behind a tissue-paper screen. In the excitement of seeing the puppet shadows appear, the screen was torn.

We talked about why, and how to mend it. The children worked with me to fix it, encouraging a shared sense of ownership and responsibility. We discussed what material might be suitable to make the screen, and they tested some white fabric to see if light could be seen through it before approving its use. The children decided that they needed to take turns behind the screen or work in pairs.

Storytelling flowed from the use of puppets, with classic references to the three little pigs and the big bad wolf; a bride living happily ever after; good and evil. Fairies and dinosaurs also featured in the stories, and Ivy’s dancing mummy, who twirled round and round.

The children respected each other’s storytelling, which I told them I was impressed by. This led to a brief conversation about rights and children’s protected right to play. This idea was woven into the storytelling – when Isabel saved her puppet from the jaws of the dinosaur, she told it, ‘You can’t eat me. I have a right to play!’

SHADOW DANCING

To coincide with Diwali celebrations, I set up the projector to show a retelling of the story of Rama and Sita in the form of a shadow dance. The children were mesmerised and tried to figure out if the shadow show was of puppets or real people.

Given their fascination, I decided to divide the Atelier in two with a large shadow sheet. This enabled the children to either work more with the puppets or to become puppets themselves.

The children quickly realised their shadows appeared on the sheet, and tried to spook their friends. They then started to dance to music of their choice. I encouraged them to watch the dancers’ moves and be involved as the audience. I modelled commentary, such as: ‘What a strong movement in your arm.’ Or: ‘How gently you turn your hand.’ The children quickly took this on.

SHADOW SKETCHES

I proposed that the shadow dancing observers drew what they saw with pen or charcoal. They were all deeply engaged – the dancers in their moves and the audience in their marks and the music. Interestingly, the children marked in time to the music.

‘Winter’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons sparked an incredible reaction from the children as Prabh started to dance and Isabel and Aaminah joined in. At first Olive was not keen on the music, but she eventually leapt down onto the floor to mark with charcoal.

As the children became more familiar with the shadow screen, they began exploring scientific concepts of light. They knew they needed to stand a certain distance from the light source to get the best shadow, and started to tell each other not to stand in the light or it ‘takes the shadow away’.

FROZEN POSES

I encouraged the dancers to hold their poses for as long as possible so they could be drawn. Children were keen to ‘freeze’ behind the screen, so I offered them a chance to make life-sized puppets. They considered their favourite poses and drew around each other’s shadows. I cut them out and there was glee as the children held up their shadows.

Isabel drew a smiley face on her puppet and covered it in charcoal. ‘It’s a shadow, so I can’t see her face, but I know she’s happy because she’s smiling under there,’ she said.

Olive and Isabel took their shadow selves to play behind the screen and pretended to have a sleepover. Ivy decided her shadow needed some clothes, so the fabric, buttons and loose parts came out again as children added decoration.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The children will continue to lead, and I am keen to offer them various provocations so that they can:

• observe and make their own articulated puppets
• make clay, or ModRoc, puppets
• explore the phrase ‘still as a statue’. We might look at statues or sculpture in our city
• investigate music and dance more, perhaps by recording the sounds in marks
• explore light and how it travels – I’ve ordered a black light and light-sensitive tape for this
• do storytelling, perhaps writing story boards and combining with puppets and costume design for a theatre show.
  
  

Manor Wood FS Unit is part of Manor Wood Primary School, Leeds. Victoria Lungu spoke to Annette Rawstrone.

BOOK CORNER

Hortense and the Shadow by Natalia and Lauren O’Hara

Hortense doesn’t like her shadow and thinks it doesn’t like her, so she decides to cut it off. But when bandits attack, Hortense’s shadow helps to scare them away.

Darkness Slipped In by Ella Burfoot

Daisy is playing when Darkness, like a shadow, slips in through her bedroom window. But she isn’t afraid. She takes him by the hand and together they dance the night away!

My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson and Sara Sanchez

‘I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me…’ Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic poem comes with beautiful illustrations that will inspire children to experiment with their own shadows.

Where the Fairies Fly by Jane Simmons

Lucy’s brother Jamie can’t sleep. He keeps seeing things in the shadows on the ceilings. ‘We need to find the Sleep Fairies,’ advises Lucy, so they fly across the ocean to the land where the fairies live.

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen

Laszlo is scared of the dark in this story about overcoming fears. The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo, but mostly it spends its time in the basement, until one night it visits his bedroom.

Orion and the Dark by Emma Yarlett

Orion is scared of a lot of things: monsters in his closet, popping balloons, and haircuts, but the scariest thing of all is the dark.

A Ray of Light by Walter Wick

Learn all about the science, art and magic of light and colour in this stunning photo book.