Early Years - The Shadow Project

A wonderful student provocation sparked The Shadow Project. Yaalini asked in passing one day, ‘What is a shadow?’ Naturally, instead of answering this question for Yaalini, we turned the question into the basis for a project. We explored this question together as a group and exposing the girls to everything ‘shadow’ became the overarching intention.

We started by asking the group: What is a shadow?

“A shadow is when the sun and the shade… and, you step in the sun and the shade and it makes a shadow.” – Emily F “Umm… if you make a shadow puppet with your fingers it will make a shadow.” – Manon

“When you see the same…when you see yourself on the wall.” – Maddy “I think when you get a shadow, you want to have a shadow friend.” – Gigi “When the sun’s up, the sun makes a shadow of your body.” – Maddie R

After this initial question, we added an overhead projector to our space and together discussed the girls’ engagement with it. We started by showing the girls a video of Rose, Maddie R and Aurelia discovering their shadows in the light of the overhead projector for the first time. Much of the discussion throughout the film was of the girls discussing and exploring how their shadows grew and shrank depending on where they were standing. We asked: Why do you think their shadows got bigger and smaller?

“Well I noticed that when they went forwards their shadows went little and when they went backwards their shadows went bigger because when you go close to it, it will make it just your size and when you go backwards, it will get bigger and then if you go forwards again, it will make your shadow go little again.” – Matilda “Because the sunlight was going through us so then we were bigger and then it got bigger and bigger when we went backwards and then when we went forwards it couldn’t because we were too far away and it made us small.” – Rose

“So the light was going through them a bit when they were going backwards, and they got bigger and bigger and when they went forwards they got smaller and smaller because the size changed because the light because... I couldn’t remember.” – Olivia

“Because when you go forwards in the light... Because the light is big and then when you go forwards it makes you little.” – Georgia “Because it works like that.” – Emma H

“Because I think because the sun is bigger because maybe when it goes smaller and then maybe it will go smaller again when they go forwards and maybe when they go near the other light maybe because there are two lights and maybe that makes them in front they’re little and when they’re in the back they’re big!” – Gigi “When they got bigger because they were blocking the light and when they got smaller because they weren’t blocking the light.” – Lara “Madeleine shadow got bigger because she got really far.” – Bianca

We turned this interest in shadows into a game. We took photos of the girls’ shadows and viewed some of them. Some shadows were easy for the girls to determine whom they belonged to, but others were a little tricky. This experience was all about noticing and describing the distinguishing features of each other.

WHO DOES THE SHADOW BELONG TO?

EMMA’S SHADOW “She’s so tall.” – Georgia “Emma! Because she’s so tall.” – Olivia “Like Parneet.” – Yaalini “Maybe.” – Emma H

ISSY’S SHADOW “I think it’s Issy because she has two pigtails, but you can’t see the other pigtail on the shadow because it’s on the other side.” – Lara

OLIVIA’S SHADOW “Me! – Olivia “Olivia because she has the ponytail on her hair.’ – Rose “Because I can still see some curls.” – Issy

We then added some texture to the overhead projector to see if this would impact on the way the girls engaged with their shadows.

“It looks like scribble.” – Amelie

“It looks like a pattern.” – Anvi “A scribble pattern.” – Amelie “It’s a tunnel!” – Gigi “It looks like a rainbow in here!” – Ellie

And, the girls explored making shadows with loose parts and the overhead projector. “It looks like an eye now.” – Ellie F “It needs lots of sun beams.” – Georgia “We’re making a sun and then we will make a moon.” – Olivia

“Now let’s make a flower.” – Madeleine

“Yeah great idea, come on girls.” – Olivia “We need pop sticks for the petals... That’s the nectar.” – Georgia “How about we could do a little circle here and bend these like this?” – Olivia Madeleine thought the yoghurt lid when placed on the overhead projector created the shadow of a little girl with pigtails. We also took our shadow learning outside, looking in more detail at our own shadows but also discovering all the other objects in our world that make shadows.

And finally, a question that would really require the girls to think deeply: What is a shadow made of?

“Your body.” – Maddy D “Because the shadow is made of the sun because when the sun shines down it makes a shadow so that’s how shadows are made.” – Mia

“Light.” – Olivia “The ground.” – Maddy D “When I touch the carpet and I touch my shadow it still feels like the carpet.” – Gigi “The sun or the light.” – Alexa “A carpet.” – Emma H “Air.” – Isla “The sun.” – Celeste

“When there’s light in front of... behind you... the sun.” – Maddie R

The Shadow Project has been a wonderful scientific journey of questioning, theorising, making ‘smart guesses’, experimenting and discovering.

It would be fair to say that the best questions are often those that the educators don’t know the answer to either, allowing an authentic quest of wonderment and discovery together.

The Shadow Project definitely encompassed some of these questions and gave us the context to truly walk alongside the girls as learners too.

Rebecca Williamson Assistant Head of Junior School –Early Years