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I'm Jackie.
I care for six children in my home, ages three to five.
We have been having lots of fun exploring shadows.
The children and I are asking questions,
sharing ideas, making observations
and also talking about what might happen
when we try new things.
All this is called science talk.
How can you make a shadow be behind you?
We started our exploration with a group activity
where we went outside to look at our shadows.
Where is your shadow?
- On the ground.
- Where is your shadow?
Behind you.
- My head is behind me.
- As we studied our shadows,
I asked a lot of open-ended questions.
What makes the shadow be in front of you?
Questions like this really push the children to stop and think
about what they're doing.
So for your shadow to be in front of you,
where does the light need to be?
- Behind.
-- Behind.
What can you tell by looking at her shadow?
- I see her ponytails.
- Sometimes my kids are not used to sharing questions
and ideas about science,
so I try to model these for them.
The light bulbs can give us light,
the flashlight can give us light.
What else?
And what is that called?
- A lamp.
- Even when we're not doing science activities,
I look for opportunities to reinforce their learning.
For example, sitting in the kitchen for a snack,
the children noticed shadows on the counter.
I used this as an opportunity
to continue our conversation about shadows.
Can you see your shadow now?
- No, it looks really small.
- So what happens when I put my hands far away from the table?
- It looks like really big.
- It looks bigger.
What makes this picture, though?
- It makes bigger and bigger and big.
- But look up.
What's covering the light from the sun?
- The tree.
- Whether we were inside or outside, I reinforced the idea
that a shadow is created when you have an object
that blocks the light.
Let's talk about what we did yesterday.
- We were doing shadow tracing.
- We are doing shadow tracing.
It's really important to make time to reflect and share
about the day's activities.
What was the big shadow over us?
- A big cloud and when we went out this morning after nap,
it was on the side of us, our shadow.
- My kids were able to show me they understood
that when you move a light source, the shadow moves too.
Why did that happen?
- Because the sun moved on the side.
- All the science talk we do
helps children build their vocabulary,
helps them to practice how to share their ideas
and also enhances
their knowledge they have about science.