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Camping Shadows

Day 8 of our Camping theme was about flashlights, darkness, and shadows. This morning we headed outdoors early since we had several rainy days in. Instead of coming in to work on our art activity as it was intended with flashlights, we stayed outside and used the natural shadows for our Camping Shadows activity. I like that I could fit it into our day so naturally.

Camping Shadows

I brought out a basket of various toys that I quickly and randomly picked out before gathering up the notebooks and crayons and heading outdoors.

tracing horse shadow
tracing shadows

Just finding the right angle to set up the toy on the notebook to see the shadow on the notebook was challenging and a good learning experience.

Everyone caught onto the idea very quickly and soon it was *quiet* because all were engaged in tracing the shadows.

tracing toy horse shadow outside
Camping Shadows 3D shapes

We tried different items like the 3D shapes that came in our kit this month. The shadows weren’t very big but the color added to the shadow!

I noticed that sometimes the activity became more like tracing the actual item rather than the shadow but that’s okay. Experimenting is part of the process.

tracing toys
toy horse shadow on paper

We had some nice shadows to work with! My group is into horses right now.

They enjoyed trading the toys and trying to trace different ones.

Camping Shadows
Camping Shadows tracing toy horse shadow
pig shadow

Sometimes tracing the shadow started out well…

Camping Shadows

and then became confusing when it was moved and no longer matched the shadow.

Camping Shadows

Some toys created better shadows than others.

And then, the shadows disappeared. Why? Clouds over the sun! We waited a few minutes and were able to see the shadows again.

clouds over sun
camping shadows book and camping toys

When we came indoors, I read the book Camping Shadows. Everyone helped guess what the items were that made the shows. Fun book!

We’re loving the Mother Goose Time Camping theme! More fun activities coming up.