Me And My Shadow

** I apologize for the late posting of our shadow inquiries.  We have been inquiring about shadows since mid November.  The students were so engaged and the learning was amazing.  I wanted to capture it all.  This was my first time working with video clips and I had many technical difficulties including deleting all of my first draft, shadow inquiry blog post.  This was a learning opportunity for all of us.  With the assistance of my 15 year old daughter, (technology is not for the faint of heart), I think we now have got things sorted out.  Thank You for your patience.

 

Our Fabulous Shadow Inquiry:

 

Due to our ongoing Kindergarten construction in our school yard, we have had to line up along the fence each morning and for dismissal at the end of the day.  Some of our students began to notice their shadows through the fence.  They began to make their shadows dance and wiggle.  The students wondered about the different things that their shadows can do. 

A few students began to ask some questions about shadows.  They noticed that on some mornings they couldn't see their shadow but at the end of the day their shadows were there.  Each day the students had more and more questions about shadows, so we decided to talk about shadows at our morning gathering circle.  As always, we begin an inquiry with a question.  What do we know about shadows?  
 
Here is what we found out:

SB: Why are our shadows following us?
MO: It's sticking on us.
AS: It's doing the same things as us.
EC: They are moving their legs and feet.
BD: It won't go away because the suns still up.
GM: The sun comes out on your shoes.
JN: How do shadows disappear?
MW: Shadows can jump when you can.
JN: Shadows can go on the buildings.
KD: You can make shadows on the grass.
MA: I went to the building, it went away.
AS: The sun goes it disappears.
GC: When you go into the shade the shadows goes away
        that's why you can't see it.
GS: Does everything have a shadow?
CG: Are all shadows black?
GS: Does a shadow always have to be at the bottom?

But we still had more questions:

EL: Do tall things make tall shadows?
KL: Do shorts things make short shadows?
MW: Can a shadow be round like a circle?

The more we talked about shadows, the more questions we had.  The students had lots of ideas about shadows but we needed to investigate to see if our questions could be answered.

We discussed what we should do next.  Some students said the best place to see our shadows is outside.  So we took a vote and everyone agreed to go outside.

We spent the whole morning outside testing all of our theories. The students were so engaged in this inquiry and worked together as a team to answer our questions.  They were having so much fun that they didn't want to come back inside.

       



We remembered that we wanted to find out if short things make short shadows and tall things make tall shadows. 

So we made our bodies really small and we were surprised that our shadow was really small too.

So we made our bodies really tall and our shadows were really tall too.

When we made our bodies wide our shadows were wide too. 


CG said that our shadows are like a copy cat.  You can't get rid of you shadow.

So we ran around to see if we could lose our shadows but they still followed us.  They followed us everywhere. 

This lead to more questions.  We wondered how we could make our shadows disappear.  We tried different things. Some students had some good ideas so we tested them out. 
CG: When another shadow covers it.
RG: When the sun goes away.
MA: When we hid in the corner.
LN: When it is night.
EL: When you go under a tree.

Then we played a game called, what can you do with you shadow? We took turns acting out our shadow activities.  We decided that we should write about the different things we can do with our shadow. 

 

 

 

Me And My Shadow Are:
JA: Playing ring around the rosy.
AA: Running
MA: Shaking my shoe.
KA: Playing hula hoop.
SB: Playing together.
CB: Are here.
CC: Playing some games.
GC: Looking at a rainbow.
EC: Drinking juice.
KD: Running.
BD: Playing tag.
JF: Wiggling.
CG: Playing hide and seek.
AG: Playing hide and seek.
SG: Playing there.
RG: Watering the sun and trees.
AI: Going outside on the ground.
EL: Walking.
GM: Playing basketball.                         AP: Picking up apples.
JN: Picking apples.                                 AS: Eating apples.
LN: Dancing.                                          GS: Moving my hands.
MO: Playing basketball.                         CS: Dancing.
MW: Playing basketball.                         MT: Playing with my toy.

We wrote about our shadow wonders and placed them on our wonder wall.

 

 

We wondered if everything has a shadow.  Some people said yes and some people said no.  So we decided to make a list of how many people think everything has a shadow and how many people think that some things do not have a shadow. 

We learned that this is called A SURVEY. In a survey, you ask a question to a group of people and record their answers on a paper.  Then you can count how many people are in each group. 

In our survey, 26 people thought everything has a shadow and 2 people thought that some things do not have a shadow. 

More people thought yes and less people thought no. 

This sparked an inquiry for a small group of students.  G.S and J.A and E.L and M.W paired up to inquire about making shadows in the classroom.  They wondered if they could see any shadows inside the classroom.  They began their investigation by looking closely at objects already in the room.  They found that some shelves, tables and doors had a shadow and some did not.  They were able to show that if the sun from the window or light from above was near the item, than it made a shadow.  If it was not near a light it did not make a shadow. 

They tested this out by bringing objects near the sunlight to see if it would have a shadow.  They tried this with a stuffed bear and a dragon.  When they held it near the light it made a shadow.  When they moved away from the light, the shadow disappeared.  Then they documented their work by writing and drawing pictures. 

 

This group presented their findings at our sharing circle.  Everyone agreed that you need light or the sun to make a shadow. 

Then one student wondered if you can make a shadow in the dark.  This sparked another great discussion.  Some people thought that you can not make a shadow at night or in the dark. 
E.L thought that if you see a light on a building you could make a shadow in the dark. 
K.D thought that if you turn on the light you can see your shadow.
And then C.G told us that if you have a little light on, you can see you shadow.  You can get a flashlight to make shadows on the wall. 
E.C added that you can make a shadow with your hands
G.S said you can make a shadow with your whole body.

There was only one thing to do.  INVESTIGATE! So we got a flashlight and tried to make shadows with our hands.  We started in a large group but there was only a small area to make our shadows so we decided to get more flashlights and have shadows centres all over the classroom. 

 

At first the students each wanted to make their own shadow puppet.  Then they started to join together and have the shadow puppets talk to each other.  They were excited about their shadow puppets and wanted to share their puppet play with their friends. 
So they began moving around the room watching everyone's puppet show.  We began to notice that groups would naturally say what character they were and where they were. 

When they didn't get to see a friends play they were sad.  Then some students had a great idea.  They thought that we should make shadow puppet movies so we could get to see all of our puppet plays. 








So this began our inquiry into the world of movie making.



We first started out by deciding which shadow puppet animals we wanted to make with our hands. Who would they be? We learned that this is called the Characters.  

Then we wrote about some of the things our animals would say.  We found out that this was called the Dialogue. 

Then we had to decide where our shadow animals would be.  In a house? In a park? In a zoo? We chose a place and drew a picture of our place.  We learned that this was called the Setting and tells where the story takes place.  We used our setting picture as the background for our Shadow Puppet Plays. This will be our scenery.  We practiced a lot before we were ready to make a video of our shadow puppet play. 

Now is the time that you can sit back with a big bowl of popcorn and watch our Shadow Puppet Plays.

Our First group is J.A and E.C.
JA: I am a crocodile.  I live in a house.  They are eating food.  They are lying down on the bed. It's a wonder house.  It has to be because they are eating food.
E.C: They are in Dinoland. It has trees, water and some dinosaurs and some grass.

 

Here is J.F and B.D's Shadow play.
B.D: I am in the sky. It is a storm cloud and me and J. made butterflies.  It is a storm and there are drops.
J.F: We are in the water.  I made 2 flowers and grass near the water. They love to go to the water. He is going to hide from Mr. Bird.  The bird says, "Hi Mr. Crocodile." Then I am glad, Mr. bird is here.

  

 

 Here is A.G and K.D's Shadow play.

A.G: I am in the spider house. He's trapped in here.  The spider is asleep.  The street is there.  He likes T.V.

K.D: The spider is in his house.  The dog is in his house. I made the street and the sun. The spider likes to sleep.  I made his bed.

 

 

Here is J.N and M.W's Shadow play:

J.N: We put seaweed because we wanted to make them green so the other fish and sharks can't bite them. He might eat me so I asked him to my party.  He can eat there.

M.W: They are in the water, the Ocean.  We made the sky, sun, clouds (blue ones) and under the water.  I'm gonna talk to the fish.  I would say, "Do you want to come to my house?"



 

Here is K.A and A.I's Shadow play.

K.A: We are at the park.  There are slides at the park.  We are playing with a red ball.

A.I: We are at the park.  I made a slide.

 

Here is C.S and G.M's Shadow play.

C.S: We are in the sea.  I made water and sand.  Fish were swimming in the sea.

G.M: At the beach I made water. My home is the sea.

 

Here is S.G and M.T's Shadow play:
S.G: There is a yellow tree.  Where is the fish.  The fish is going in the trees.  The tree's going up to the coconuts.  He is going in the water.
M.T: I am a crocodile.  Snap, snap. (made the actions)
J.N and S.G. made a shadow video together too. 

 



 

Here is G.C and M.A's Shadow play.

G.C: We are at the beach.  There are fireworks.  The sand is at the bottom.  At the beach, they have water.

M.A: We are at the beach.  I was swimming in the sea.  Then I was playing with sand.

 

Here is A.P and C.B's Shadow play.
A.P: They are at the water and at the park.  There are a lot of slides and people.  They are a lot of stuff to climb on.  The crocodile will climb on it.
C.B: Go to the park.  Go to the house.

 

Here is L.N and R.G's Shadow play.
L.N: Here is the castle.  There is a tower and a flag.  Fish is in the water.  That's the octopus.
R.G: I am in the castle. I am the bat flying in the sky. That's the climbing rock and that's the door.





 

Here is G.S and A.A's Shadow play:
G.S: We are at the park.  I am playing in the slide and climbing thing.  This is a rainbow and rain too. 
A.A: I'm at the park. I can play on the slides.  We can play hide and seek. 

 

Here is E.L and C.C's Shadow play.
E.L: I am at the park.  We can play together on the slide but we have to get back to the water to live.  The sea can have a park too, under the water.
C.C: I am in the sea.  It is blue and seaweed.  A shark eats the fish.  The are birds in the sky.  They always go on the sea to catch them and fly away. 

 

Here is C.G. and A.S's Shadow play.
C.G: They are in the forest.  I made a mouse and flowers.  I made an apple tree but it didn't grow apples yet.  Black things are coconuts.  Inside the river and ponds there is seaweed.  That's water grass.  I made lady bugs, birds and clouds.
A.S: I am there in the forest.  I made some trees and water.  I made some flowers too.  There is grass in the forest. 

 

Here is M.O and S.B's Shadow play.

M.O: It is a T-Rex dinosaur in the park.  He is very big like this.  Too big for the slide.  The bunny can go on it.  There are lots of slides.  The T-Rex goes ROAR at the bunny.  He likes him.

S.B: We are in a house and a park.  We are in a park beside our house.  The T-Rex wanted to play with me in the park.  We made grass, swings.  I can hold him on the swings.  He has tiny hands, won't fit, so I will hold him. 

 

After all of this fun some students started making puppets out of paper.  I remembered that our friend Mr. Walo gave us a special puppet stage.  It was a silhouette puppet stage and the students had fun exploring how to use it. 

They decided that they needed to have a light just like our shadow puppets.  We learned that silhouette puppets are like shadow puppets only they are made of paper.  You need to shine the light on the screen.  You have to hold the puppet on the screen so that you can see them. We learned that a silhouette puppet can be anything.  We decided to make different kinds of silhouette puppets.

 

 

 

 

We made people.  We made animals.  We made dinosaurs.  We made trees.  We made flowers.  We even made silhouette puppets from different coloured paper to see if it would work. Yes it did work.  It was a lot of fun making and playing with our silhouette puppets. 

We hope that you have enjoyed our Shadow Puppet Inquiry as much as we did.

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.
(Jean de La Fontaine)

 Thank you Friends!