Year 3 - Shadow Puppets

This week in year 3, we have been investigating shadows. We have enjoyed learning how shadows are formed and the effect that opaque, translucent and transparent materials have on the shadow. 

We coincided this learning with our learning on Chinese New Year and selected materials to make Chinese shadow puppets of the zodiac animals. We then enjoyed playing with the puppets, investigating how to make shadows larger or smaller by bringing them closer or further from the light. 

We were then posed with the challenge of working out why football players sometimes have 4 shadows. We used a figurine and 4 torches (representing flood-lights) to investigate this. 

Some children even took this learning further and made their own shadow puppets at home! 

Ask your child:

- Why do footballers sometimes have 4 shadows?

- How do shadows form?