Friday 11 August 2017

Book Based Activities - Fun with Shadows

We love our books so much that I have decided we are going to do a monthly activity where we do something that has been inspired by the books we have been reading. 

 This month we have been reading a story called My Shadow. As we were reading it, it struck me that I had never really pointed out or shown Lily her shadow. So I thought of a great activity to start to notice them more. 

This activity, is best done outdoors and you will need the sun. Its also best to do it when the sun is lower. This is because you will get a longer shadow. 

 So at around 4pm this afternoon, we headed into our back yard where the sun was. I told Lily to bring her chalk with her. 

 When we got there, I pointed out to Lily that she had a shadow. Its no longer a new concept to her, but she doesn't seem to notice it unless I point it out. Very sweetly, Lily waves to her shadow. I then show her how when we move, the shadow moves to. So we start to move both our arms and legs. 

 Now its time for the nice little quick activity I thought of. I tell lily to strike a pose, and put her arms into the air and legs wide. We notice that she shadow does it too. I then get a piece of chalk and asking her to keep very still (not easy for a 2 year old) I draw around her shadow. When she moved out of the way, a figure was drawn on the floor. She was very impressed and got me to give it some eyes and a smile. 

We did it again with a different pose. We could only fit 2 shadows into our backyard but you could do loads in lots of different poses if you had a bigger space. I tried to get lily to draw around one of my shadows, but she can't quite understand how to do that yet and was just drawing circles. If you have an older child, I bet they would love to draw out your shadow. 



Its such a quick, easy and fun little thing to do, and you get to learn all about shadows at the same time. 

Do you think your children would enjoy this activity? 
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15 comments:

  1. Kayleigh Watkins11 August 2017 at 17:42

    My daughter would love to play this game, she loves books and her pavement chalks xXx

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  2. modzy7811 August 2017 at 21:53

    This looks like fun! Hopefully we can get enough sun to try this with my daughter.

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  3. Unknown11 August 2017 at 21:55

    What a brilliant game

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  4. LeilaB11 August 2017 at 23:17

    Great idea. My daughter get so excited when following her own shadow.

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  5. Unknown12 August 2017 at 07:16

    You have so many great ideas. Looks like fun and great for learning

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  6. Unknown12 August 2017 at 11:35

    fab, you have such great ideas

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  7. Margaret14 August 2017 at 21:12

    That's a great way to have fun
    Used to do this ourselves !

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  8. Ren10 October 2017 at 10:17

    I remember my niece had this book and she love it too!

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  9. Andrea Fletcher3 November 2017 at 14:06

    Love this idea, it made me smile.

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  10. a.e.adkins4 November 2017 at 08:42

    A great idea, older kids could dress their shadows too

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  11. Natalie Crossan24 November 2018 at 13:48

    This is a great idea, especially if you have some chalk lying around (which we do in our garden!)

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  12. Susan Smith3 April 2020 at 09:59

    Never thought of this, looks great fun to do and can be done in the back yard

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  13. Siobhan N27 November 2022 at 11:43

    What a good idea, and suitable for children across quite an age range!

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  14. Lynn Neal7 December 2022 at 20:51

    I love this idea, ad they can make any pose they want to!

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  15. Carly Belsey11 December 2022 at 07:13

    Fantastic idea for the summer. My daughter would think this is great.

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