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Friendly Shadows

Make shadow shapes with a partner.

Print Activity

Materials

camera

Key Science Concepts

You can change the shape of a shadow by moving and turning your body or the object making the shadow or by moving the light source.
You can combine shadows to make a different shape.

Vocabulary

Encourage children to use words like sun, light, outline, shape, rotate, turn, and direction. Emphasize science process words like describe, compare, observe, notice, and experiment.

Directions

Tell children that they will be working with partners to make shapes by combining their shadows.

Bring children outside and divide them into pairs. Ask them if they can make one large shadow using both of their shadows. Encourage children to move around and face different directions to make lots of different shapes.
Ask children to try out some of the following challenges:
- Can you and your partner make a shadow with three legs? With four arms?
- Can you and your partner make your shadows touch hands, even if the two of you are not really touching hands?
- Can you make your shadow hide inside your partner’s shadow?
- Can you and your partner make your shadows cross while walking without bumping into each other?
- Can you make your shadow stand on the head of your partner’s shadow?

Photograph the children’s shadow creations and look at them together at a later time.

Reflect and Share

After you are back inside, have children describe one of the shadows that they created with their partner. Ask,

What shapes did you and your partner make with your shadows? How did you and your partner make these shapes?
Could you have made these shapes by yourself? Why not?

Related Video

Back to Stand-Alone Activities

Outdoor Shadows

Stand Alone
Indoor
20 - 30 minutes

Accommodations

It may be more difficult for younger children to make shadow shapes. For this activity, pair younger children with older children to provide them with more guidance and support.

Educator Close-Up

Outdoor shadow exploration was a big hit. Last week, Erica and I tried to keep the interest high by displaying books about shadows around the classroom and introducing new twists. One day, we brought music to the playground so we could dance with our shadows. Another day we went  for a walk and noticed all the different places our shadows could be: in the sandbox, on a bench, on a tree trunk. We looked to see if the sandbox, the bench, and the tree trunk had shadows, too.

At Circle Time, the children talked about the discoveries they made during their outdoor shadow explorations. I wrote their ideas on a chart.

—Aziza, preschool educator

© 2024 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Peep and the Big Wide World and the Peep characters and related indicia are trademarks of WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. “Peep,” “Quack,” “Chirp,” “Tom” and “Nellie” were originally created by Kai Pindal for the National Film Board of Canada productions The Peep Show, © National Film Board of Canada, 1962, and Peep and the Big Wide World, © National Film Board of Canada, 1988. Peep and the Big Wide World ® is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario. Major funding for Peep and the Big Wide World is provided by the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1222607. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.