How to Explore Shadows — draw and write

How to Explore Shadows: illustrated shadow activity worksheet with space for children’s ideas

Look, then try.

The picture shows the whole trick. A shadow appears when something solid gets in the way of light: the light travels out, hits your toy and stops, leaving a dark shape behind it. Try it with a torch or a lamp in a dim corner. Move the light closer and your shadow grows tall; move it further away and it shrinks. Move the light to the side and the shadow stretches away from you like a long path. Shadows are not fixed: they change every single time the light changes.

Start drawing and writing below

Open the worksheet to print or save

Move lamps and torches with dry hands and keep them away from curtains and paper. Never look straight into a torch or the sun, and never stare at bright light. A grown-up dims the room and stays nearby, and an adult comes outside with you. Rest your eyes often, and nothing goes near your mouth.

Pen colourPen size

Use a finger, stylus or mouse in each drawing box. Type below it, or ask a grown-up to write your words. Your work stays in this tab. Save before refreshing or leaving.

ACTIVITY 1

Make my first shadow

Shine a light on a toy or on your hand. Draw the object and the shadow it made.

The object I used was…My shadow looked…

ACTIVITY 2

Big and small

Move the light closer, then further away. Draw the same shadow both ways.

When the light came closer, my shadow…When the light moved away, my shadow…

ACTIVITY 3

Move the light

Keep your object still and walk the light around it. Draw what changed.

When the light moved to the side, my shadow…The strangest shadow shape I made…

Your ideas belong here. There is no score.

What are we learning?

Light travels in straight lines, and a shadow is the shape where something blocks it. Moving the light and watching the shadow change is early physics: predicting, testing and describing what you see.