This week we’ve brought together some of our favourite ways to play with shadows.
Looking at your shadow when the sun is shining is lots of fun, but experimenting with making your own shadows is just as brilliant and darker evenings are a perfect time for this.
All you need is a torch or lamp (or two) and some space. We’ll give ideas for indoor and outdoor activities but you can adapt all of them to be done wherever you feel most comfortable on a dark evening.
We’ve suggested activities that often work well for babies, toddlers and older children – but shadows are universally fun so mix and match the activity ideas you choose based on what you think your child will enjoy most!
Light and shadow is fascinating for babies, and the darker evenings give you lots of opportunities to create shadows where they can see them clearly, and maybe even create their own.
What you need
A torch or lamp
A sheet (optional)
What to do
Find a clear area of wall, or hang a white sheet up to create a clear space.
Place a torch or lamp in a safe place, around six feet away from the wall or sheet. Make sure you stay close while the light is on and don’t let your baby touch the bulb, as it can get hot.
Sit or stand between the light source and the wall or sheet, and use your hands or toys to create shadows for your baby to watch. Let them get closer if they wish to, they might want to try to touch the shadows or follow them as they move.
What to do
Take a walk when the sky starts to get darker and look form some streetlights to explore shadows under. When you find one, point out your shadows and give your toddler a chance to try out a few poses to see their shadow change.
Explain to your toddler that you’re going to see how many different shadow shapes you can make, then use your hands and body to create different shadows on the wall.
Encourage your toddler to take turns with you thinking of new poses to make different shadows. You can talk about what the shadows look like, or try to create shadows that look like particular shapes or animals.
Copy shapes your toddler makes, and talk about how you’re moving your body to match their position. You might make a point of talking about how you’re balancing while holding your arms up, for example, to bring your child’s attention to how their body feels when they move and hold a position.
Keep taking turns to create new shapes until your toddler has had enough. You can try comparing the way shadows look near different streetlights – some might be fainter than others or distorted by a wall. Talk about the ways they are similar and different when you do your favourite poses in different places.
What you need
A torch or lamp
A sheet (optional)
Some toys or cardboard but outs of characters from a favourite story
What to do
Find a clear area of wall, or hang a white sheet up to create a clear space. If you want to make the most of the outdoors, you can hang your sheet up outside and use a torch as your light source.
Place a torch or lamp in a safe place, around six feet away from the wall or sheet. Make sure you stay close while the light is on and don’t let your child touch the bulb, as it can get hot.
Sit or stand between the light source and the wall or sheet. Take some time to experiment with the shadows and let your child have fun creating shadows in different ways. Help them adjust the light’s position to make the shadows stronger or softer, and pick a position you both think works well.
When they’ve had time to explore the shadows freely, take out your toys or cut out characters and use them to make shadows.
Tell a story using the characters, making their shadows move and interact as the story is told. This could be you reading from a favourite book, retelling a familiar story in your own words or making up a whole new adventure for the shadow characters.
Let your child move some of the characters to make shadows and, if they want to, they can even take over telling the story leaving you to sit back and watch.
If you and your child enjoy creating shadows, you can make the most of darker evenings and experiment with how shadows look in different places around the house, or while out and about.
The Dark Nights Play Kit will be available at the bottom of your Today screen for whenever you need some play inspiration.
Find more activity ideas in your Activities tab, and remember that each time you master a skill you’ll get new activity ideas linked to the next active skill in their journey.