Groundhog Day

It's Groundhog Day and we went looking for shadows.

Inside, behind our screen the children play with the overhead projector.

Not all of them notice the shadows that they are making on the larger screen

but once they do they tend to add more.

At the art table they tried to make their own shadows using small toys

and flashlights.

That was very simple, the hard part was documenting that shadow.

Paint, brush and water were provided 

but it was hard to make the shadow and paint it.

This process made for a good cooperative activity with their grown up.

Off to the side was another area to explore.

 Then we went outside.

We first we stood close to the school where the sun couldn't find us.

After looking and not seeing our shadows

we walked into the sun.

Using chalk we traced each other's shadows.

Before we went out we read the book "The Black Rabbit"

by Philippa Leathers.

At the end of the book rabbit and the Black Rabbit hold hands

and walk off together.

Some children tried to trace their grown ups shadow.

It took her a while but she persisted and finished it.

Marmots on Groundhog Day

We spent the morning at our local Visitor's Centre.

They have a wonderful hands on discovery area.

I created a scavenger hunt of items to find in the discovery area.

It worked as a guide because there is so much to see.

I'm just sharing a bit here today.

But what interested me the most was the marmot display

and their burrows.

It's perfect for the children to crawl into.

I brought the stool so they could pop their head out of the top.

We discovered that there are small tunnels connecting both sides.

At one point a child thought he saw a snake inside,

so I crawled in with a flashlight

and discovered it was a wire hanging down.

But that lead us to discover that the burrows are connected.

We practiced, a little, looking for our shadows.

Groundhog and It's Shadow

Groundhog Day is this week and we've been playing with shadows.

By creating a groundhog hole from a box, 

the children could crawl in and pop up.

The question was, could they see their shadow/

This activity is fun from both sides of the screen.

 We can watch what the children are doing.

And they can practice making their own shadows.

Or the screen makes a great peek-a-boo game.

Shadow Art 2015

We finished our focus on shadow and light with a couple of art activities.
 
The first was tracing shadows.  We set up two lamps so more than one
                     child could work at this at the same time.
                   
I referred to the lights as the sun and we angled it low to make the shadows
                                                 longer. 
                     
I hoped we could use oil pastels for this activity but the tip of the pastel was
                   to thick for tracing so we brought down the pencils.
  
I’ve mentioned before that younger children may have a difficult time seeing the shadow.  But once it was pointed out, the white paper helped, then they were able to trace around it.  The older children more so because it took a lot of fine
                                                  motor skill.
 
This child worked hard to set up the mini colander just so and then trace the
                  marks.  We thought it looked like a strawberry with seeds.

The other art activity was using stencils and chalk pastels.

            
It is the same skill as the first activity but simpler because the stencil is a solid form to trace.   This child really enjoyed this activity and did several pieces of art.
  
On to her second work; love her focus and the brush of chalk on her cheek from
                                         pushing up her glasses.
   
And just like tracing a shadow some children couldn’t see the outside of the
                                   stencil and started on top of it. 
         
          
I really enjoyed this art.  This is my piece, I overlapped the stencil and used
                                             different colours.

A Home for Groundhogs

Today we modified our igloo into a home for groundhogs by throwing a couple
                                    of sheets over the top.
              
                          It’s now a cozy, darker hide-a-way. 
     
A basket of flashlights were waiting inside for the children to play with light
                                             and shadows.
 
The shadowy home drew the children in or was it the idea that they could play
                                        with the flashlights?
   
They experimented shining the light on the jugs, on themselves and on each other.
  
Shining the light on the fabric above looked like stars in the sky.  One parent shone the flashlight from the outside through the jugs and made it glow.   She also tried it through the fabric but it was too thick and didn’t let the light come through.
  
Several grown ups squeezed inside to enjoy the exploration with their child.

I wonder what else we can use our milk jug igloo for.   Any ideas?