Before beginning to frame my lesson, I go through numerous lesson plans on the internet to see how other teachers handle this topic and how it is talked about specifically to Kindergartners. I found lots of interesting topics and links related to the topic and now my resource list is ready.
Another thing I do is I coordinate with the teachers to see what all they talk about Shadows to the children. This helps me in understanding how I can frame my Presentation.
I begin my presentation asking the kids if they can tell me what as shadow is. You can get 1001 responses from these kids. My next question would be: Should I be scared of my shadow? Here is where, few kids come out telling that they dont like their shadow. We need to give them a re assurance that there is no need to be scared of the shadow as it is our friend.
Now our Kindergarteners are learning a lovely poem on shadow, where the first few verses go like this:
My shadow is a quiet friend
Who always sticks along me..
So when I say the shadow is my friend...i remind them of the poem by pointing out that my shadow isnt a noisy friend instead it is my quiet friend. I also tell them that whatever I do, my shadow does...hence it is my very good friend, who always sticks along me..
I also talk about when we can see shadows and why we cannot see it during the night.
The next few slides of my presentation would focus on where all we can see shadows..on the sidewalk, on the grass, on water. I specifically enjoy showing the picture of a tree and its shadow on the ground and I ask them (pointing at the shadow) , "has another tree fallen down on the ground?"
In kindergarten, they are taught briefly that we need three things to make a shadow: light, object and surface. First, I depict this pictorially to show the three things required. Then, another interesting way I do is. I close the projector light with my hands to completely block the light and make a child stand up and ask the children if they can see that child's shadow. When they say No, my next question is Why? The importance of light is clearly explained this way. Now, I remove my hands from the projector to make the light appear and the standing child's shadow appears. The children now tell me why the shadow has appeared. By keeping the projector in Picture Muting Mode, the light will be dim and a very faint shadow is produced. There you go, another concept also told: dim light means fainter shadow.
My next area of the presentation focusses on how certain people make shadows with their hands. I used the help of this site:
http://www.daily-tangents.com/RefPage/Bursill/B07.shtml
to get some interesting shadows made using the hands. Honestly, I do wish I can also make some interesting shadows. Well, I can make the one of the flying bird shown here.
The next stage is using this interesting link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/light_shadows.shtml
This is a very useful link to show many concepts regarding Shadows. There are two sections in this - Shadows you see Inside and Shadow that you see Outside. In the " Shadows Inside" section, a watering can is kept and the light falls on the can, the kids understand that you will get the shadow of a watering can only. This is an interactive link. I can keep changing the object and the shadow keeps changing. Another interesting thing I can do is that i can change the brightness of the light to see how the shadow changes from being faint to being clear. One more thing is that the children understand that when I bring the light source close to the object, the shadow becomes larger and vice versa. I absolutely love the interactivity of this site!!!
The "Shadows Outside" section is also great. Here, they see the differences in shadows of various objects under day and night time. They also get to see how the shadow moves and changes in
size as the sun goes from East to West.
Finally I close my lesson by playing two wonderful videos from my favourite site: youtube.com.
My first video is from one of my favourite shows: Sesame Street. The link is -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCm7j-lZ-KQKQKQ.
This is a video on Grover who is talking about his furry little friend, his shadow. It is a great song which both kids and teachers enjoy watching. The interesting part is that Grover tells so many facts in a sing song manner..I have viewed this video umpteen times but I still laugh and enjoy watching it.
My second video which I close the lesson with is a video - Amazing Hand Shadow show by Raymond Crowe. The link is -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW-3KwXpkkM
Here, this wonderful guy Raymond Crowe creates such wonderful shadows using his two hands along with the wonderful song "What a wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Before I start the video, I ask the children to observe the video and figure out the different shadows Raymond Crowe makes. Children love telling the shadows they can identify..well few kids have to be prompted. This song also has a wonderful calming effect too..
At the end, I also give them time to try out making the Flying Bird shadow using their hands. Kids love playing with the shadow..me too, though I wish i had the talent to make different shadows. At least, I am a master of the flying bird one!!!
A lesson I enjoyed working on..and I am sure the kids have enjoyed too!!
Just to add - These are the lyrics of the song - "What a wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
Theyre really sayin......I love you.
I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
Theyll learn much more.....than Ill never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world!!
Really, a wonderful world!!!
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