The Work Plan

Thursday, October 21, 2010

What Makes A Shadow (StArt, Science Sunday)

    So finally our book order came in from Barnes& Nobles. What Makes A Shadow by Clyde Robert Bulla. It is in the Let's -Read- And- Find- Out Science series Stage 1. My son has been scared to sleep at night when he sees the shadows and becomes afraid of the images. I wanted to give him a clear understanding of what he was actually seeing on the walls in his bedroom at night. I came across this book and found out that they only published this book library binding. My library didn't have this book availiable so I anxiously waited for it to be avaliable at Barnes & Nobles. The story is wonderful and fact based. Throughout the story it gives plenty examples of shadows and a kid friendly explanation to What Makes A Shadow.

                                                         Here is a photo of the cover of the book.


           First thing the book points out is when the sun is shining everything and everybody has a shadow.


           When the sun is in front of you, look behind you. You can see your shadow.


There is a dark place where the sun does not shine through. The darkness is the shadow. The book then invites you to look for shadows.



The sun shines on one side of the earth. The other side is in shadow.


 Now after reading this book we the begin looking through this book to learn the Art of Shadow Casting.

 
                 DJ picked his favorite two shadows from the book. This is the Dove.



                                                                This is the Snake.



                                            Now it is time to put on his own shadow puppet theatre.

                                                                               
                                              This is his background stencils to choose from.


                          DJ putting on his first shadow puppet theatre show.


                                                                         
 This reminded me of a stunning work of Art that  About A Girl did with her daughter L. It is called The Carnivals Of Animals Part Two. Sorry I wasn't able to link to the exact post. I showed this to DJ and he is truly inspired to do more shadow art.

The best thing that came from this presentation about shadows is that when he was done with his performance he said " I wasn't even scared when I was doing that". 

I am linking this post to A MOMMY'S ADVENTURES where you can find art projects done by children inspired by books it is called StArt. I am also linking this to Science Sunday hosted by ADVENTURES IN MOMMYDOM where you can find children doing lots of science related activities.

7 comments:

  1. Great post! Some items are a little too ahead of Elle right now, but others I can do with her too. She still tries to outrun her shadow at times! Love that! Thanks for sharing! Kerri

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  2. I love this! We did a shadow experiment last year as we were studying the sun. We measured our shadows all day long and predicted what was going to happen to them.

    For, if it helps: http://adventuresofmommyness.blogspot.com/2009/08/experiments-in-sun.html

    And, I love the shadow puppets, I've never had much luck with mine, but yours turned out great.

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  3. wow you really went all out. Love the shadow puppets, looks awesome!

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  4. This is wonderful. I love the shadow puppets and backgrounds you created.

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  5. What good ideas for working with shadows! Thanks for sharing them! You give very good ideas!

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  6. My oldest is into origami right now and I think shadow puppetry would be a neat extension. Thanks for the idea and commenting on my blog. :)

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  7. Soo sorry I haven't commented on this post before. I've been so busy and remembered seeing the What Makes a Shadow title but not having time to read the post. I'm going to be teaching a music class to L's Montessori school and would like to do the Carnival of the Animals lesson.
    I remembered your post on this book and came to check it out.
    LOVE, love , love your shadow puppet theatre and how you studied what makes shadows. This is exactly what I would like to do with L's class.
    Thanks so much for talking about the book and for linking back to me.
    Loving all of the works you are doing I'm just sorry I've been so busy and not been able to comment.

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