An Inquiry into Shadows

We had been playing outside first thing in the morning and the children were noticing their shadows – against the wall their shadows were shorter than themselves, on the ground they were long… They were trying to step on each other’s shadows…

When we came inside, we talked about this interest and wanted to see where it might go. We quickly googled shadow images and threw this image up on the smart board as the children entered the classroom. We thought that it would be fun and maybe challenge their thinking a little. But nobody seemed to notice the discrepancy in the photo. This was confusing to us. There were a few that thought the lines in the background were cool but that was it. So we said nothing and just carried on as usual. After a bit, we heard some children pointing out the photo and we let them talk. It took about 5 minutes before most of the children really noticed that these were not true shadows of the people in the foreground. We’re thinking this is strange because it is so obvious to us. Maybe they don’t know as much as we think they know about shadows. Hmmm. A provocation to begin our day. 🙂