Explore and Play: Light and Dark Shadows

Materials

• What Makes a Shadow? by Clyde Robert Bulla
• wax paper
• book
• lamp

Directions

Reread pages 18 and 19 of the book you just finished, which describes how some shadows are darker than others. Tell children you’re going to try an experiment together to see if that is true.

1. Have a volunteer place a piece of wax paper between the lamp and a wall. Have the group observe the shadow it makes.
2. Then have another volunteer place a book between the lamp and the wall. Have the group observe the shadow it makes.
3. Have children compare the two shadows. Ask,
   • How did the two shadows look different?
   • Why do you think some shadows are darker than others? Why do you think the shadow of the wax paper looks different than the shadow of the book?  
   • Where else have we used wax paper? (The mini shadow theater.) Why do you think we used the wax paper to make the screen of the shadow theater instead of something else, like a towel or a piece of cardboard? What do you think would have happened if we had used a towel instead?