Unit Opener General Resources Page

How to Make a Shadow by Mathew Needleman

Shadows Poem by Sonia Thacher

I purchased about 3 disposable cameras and sent them home with each student. The students had to search around their homes and find shadows and take pictures of them. Each child could take only 4 pictures, so three cameras were more than enough for the whole class. It takes about 1 week to get through the whole class, but the students get so excited about taking pictures and some of them turned out really well. The parents got into the act also, and it was a wonderful unit opener. The pictures can be used in the investigations and the concept question boards. Enjoy

We start by examining our shadows outside. The students sit on a bench in the shade while I stand in the sun. I talk about my shadow and I wave to it. Then, to preteach the vocabulary from the story opener, I talk about being in the sun/shade (in and shade are vocabulary words). Do the students have shadows? If I step into the shaded area they are sitting in, do I still have a shadow? Then I ask a student to join me in the sun. We make 2 shadows, then we stand close together to make one large shadow. My class then walks together around campus looking for shadows on the playground. When we get to something easy to trace and out of the way of the other classes in PE/recess, I trace that object's shadow. We visit that location on campus 2 more times before we go home that day, and I trace the shadow with a different color of chalk each time. We talk about how the shadow has changed, hopefully noticing the relationship of the sun to the object.

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