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This video captures toddlers interacting with their shadows. The first child names his shadow size, calling, “Big, big, big, giant.” As teachers, how might we introduce the vocabulary: big, bigger, biggest to provoke his further understanding of relative size? The first child manipulates his shadow by walking closer then further away and also attempts to combine his shadow in the corner, eventually causing his shadow to disappear. When the teacher asks the child a question to encourage him to verbalize his theory about shadows, the child moves away. How can we help children move from the manipulation of shadow to an understanding of shadow? As the second child enters the scene, we notice the sheer joy in “playing” with shadow in a fashion reminiscent of Peter Pan. What can children understand about their own bodies by working with shadows?

This download includes a high resolution video file plus a text based analysis of what the children might be thinking and what interesting explorations are possible with a shadow wall at right angles to a mirror wall.

Run time: 1 minutes, 45 seconds