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Explore Shadows

Teaching Strategies

Week 2: Indoor Shadows

Curriculum Planner

This week children will create shadows indoors using lamps and flashlights. They’ll discover how to change a shadow’s shape, size, and position by moving the object that’s casting the shadow or by moving the light source. They’ll also learn to recognize an object’s shadow and match it to the object that is making it. 

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Morning Circle

25 – 35 minutes

Watch and Discuss: Shadow Play

(15 – 20 min.)

Explore and Play: Indoor Shadows

(10 – 15 min.)

Read and Discuss: Guess Whose Shadow?

(15 – 20 min.)

Explore and Play: Shadow Matching

(10 – 15 min.)

Watch and Discuss: Night Light

(15 – 20 min.)

Explore and Play: Shadow Detectives

(5 – 10 min.)

Watch and Discuss: Shadow Tracing

(15 – 20 min.)

Explore and Play: Shadow Art

(10 – 15 min.)

Read and Discuss: Light and Shadow

(15 – 20 min.)

Explore and Play: Changing Shadow Shapes

(10 – 15 min.)

Learning Centers

15 – 30 minutes

Learning Centers
Click here to go to this week's learning centers.

Guided Activity

20 – 30 minutes

Indoor Shadow Shapes

(20 – 30 min.)

Big and Little Shadows

(20 – 30 min.)

All Sorts of Shadows

(20 – 30 min.)

Making Many Shadows

(20 – 30 min.)

Shadow Simon Says

(20 – 30 min.)

Closing Circle

10 – 15 minutes

Share the Day’s Discoveries

(10 – 15 min.)

Share the Day’s Discoveries

(10 – 15 min.)

Share the Day’s Discoveries

(10 – 15 min.)

Share the Day’s Discoveries

(10 – 15 min.)

Share the Week’s Discoveries

(10 – 15 min.)
Week 3
Day 1

Day 1

Today children will make shadow shapes using a lamp.

25-35 minutes

Morning Circle

Time: 15-20 Minutes
Watch and Discuss: Shadow Play
Peep, Quack, and Chirp discover their shadows—then use them to teach Tom, the trouble-making cat, a lesson.
Time: 10-15 Minutes
Explore and Play: Indoor Shadows
Make shadows with a lamp. 

Learning Centers

Library Center
Read books about light and shadows.
Technology Center
Watch PEEP episodes and live-action videos about shadows
Shadow Museum
Display, explore, and compare pictures of shadows.
Art Center
Create art using shadows, lamps, and flashlights.
Lamp Shadow Center
Make shadows using the light from a lamp.

20-30 minutes

Guided Activity

Time: 20-30 Minutes
Indoor Shadow Shapes
Move and turn an object to make different shadow shapes.

10-15 minutes

Closing Circle

Time: 10-15 Minutes
Share the Day’s Discoveries
Review today’s explorations and ideas about shadows.
Day 2

Day 2

Today children will match shadow shapes. They will also explore the size of a shadow using a lamp.

25-35 minutes

Morning Circle

Time: 15-20 Minutes
Read and Discuss: Guess Whose Shadow?
What is making the shadows you see?
Time: 10-15 Minutes
Explore and Play: Shadow Matching
Can you match an object with its shadow? 

Learning Centers

Library Center
Read books about light and shadows.
Technology Center
Watch PEEP episodes and live-action videos about shadows
Shadow Museum
Display, explore, and compare pictures of shadows.
Art Center
Create art using shadows, lamps, and flashlights.
Lamp Shadow Center
Make shadows using the light from a lamp.

20-30 minutes

Guided Activity

Time: 20-30 Minutes
Big and Little Shadows
Move objects close to and far from a light to make big and small shadows.

10-15 minutes

Closing Circle

Time: 10-15 Minutes
Share the Day’s Discoveries
Review today’s explorations and ideas about shadows.
Day 3

Day 3

Today, children will make shadow shapes using flashlights.

20-30 minutes

Morning Circle

Time: 15-20 Minutes
Watch and Discuss: Night Light
Quack and Peep find a flashlight and have fun making shadows.
Time: 5-10 Minutes
Explore and Play: Shadow Detectives
Track down indoor shadows.

Learning Centers

Library Center
Read books about light and shadows.
Technology Center
Watch PEEP episodes and live-action videos about shadows
Shadow Museum
Display, explore, and compare pictures of shadows.
Art Center
Create art using shadows, lamps, and flashlights.
Lamp Shadow Center
Make shadows using the light from a lamp.

20-30 minutes

Guided Activity

Time: 20-30 Minutes
All Sorts of Shadows
Shine a flashlight from different positions to make different shadows.

10-15 minutes

Closing Circle

Time: 10-15 Minutes
Share the Day’s Discoveries
Review today’s explorations and ideas about shadows.
Day 4

Day 4

Today children will experiment with shadow art and making multiple shadows at once.

25-35 minutes

Morning Circle

Time: 15-20 Minutes
Watch and Discuss: Shadow Tracing
Children trace the shadows they make indoors and outdoors.
Time: 10-15 Minutes
Explore and Play: Shadow Art
Create art by coloring shadows.

Learning Centers

Library Center
Read books about light and shadows.
Technology Center
Watch PEEP episodes and live-action videos about shadows
Shadow Museum
Display, explore, and compare pictures of shadows.
Art Center
Create art using shadows, lamps, and flashlights.
Lamp Shadow Center
Make shadows using the light from a lamp.

20-30 minutes

Guided Activity

Time: 20-30 Minutes
Making Many Shadows
Use several flashlights to make multiple shadows.

10-15 minutes

Closing Circle

Time: 10-15 Minutes
Share the Day’s Discoveries
Review today’s explorations and ideas about shadows.
Day 5

Day 5

Today children will investigate how their own shadows behave.

25-35 minutes

Morning Circle

Time: 15-20 Minutes
Read and Discuss: Light and Shadow
Light makes lots of different shadows.
Time: 10-15 Minutes
Explore and Play: Changing Shadow Shapes
How many shadow shapes can you make with one object?

Learning Centers

Library Center
Read books about light and shadows.
Technology Center
Watch PEEP episodes and live-action videos about shadows
Shadow Museum
Display, explore, and compare pictures of shadows.
Art Center
Create art using shadows, lamps, and flashlights.
Lamp Shadow Center
Make shadows using the light from a lamp.

20-30 minutes

Guided Activity

Time: 20-30 Minutes
Shadow Simon Says
Can you make the shadow that Simon tells you to?

10-15 minutes

Closing Circle

Time: 10-15 Minutes
Share the Week’s Discoveries
Review the week’s explorations and ideas about shadows.
  1. Peep and friends!
  2. National Science Foundation
  3. 9Story
  4. American Public Television
  5. TVOntario

© 2024 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Peep and the Big Wide World and the Peep characters and related indicia are trademarks of WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. “Peep,” “Quack,” “Chirp,” “Tom” and “Nellie” were originally created by Kai Pindal for the National Film Board of Canada productions The Peep Show, © National Film Board of Canada, 1962, and Peep and the Big Wide World, © National Film Board of Canada, 1988. Peep and the Big Wide World ® is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario. Major funding for Peep and the Big Wide World is provided by the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1222607. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.