This week, Year 4 have been investigating shadows. The children were able to recognise that shadows are formed when the light, from a light source, is blocked by an opaque object.
Before we began our investigations, we enjoyed watching a short film clip about creating shadows called ‘Wonderful World.’ In this show, the audience are on the same side of the screen as the puppeteer so you can see him working.
During the presentation the creator shows shadows of both an adult hand and a child’s hand at the same time. Both hands belong to the same person.
How did he do it?
We discussed our thoughts and suggested ideas.
“Is one hand close and one far away?” questioned Noah.
“I think that the light is moving closer,” stated Jess.
This led us to thinking about how shadow sizes can be altered.
The class were asked to set up their own experiment that would enable them to be able to investigate the following:
- find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change
- make systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units
- recording findings using simple scientific language and tables
The children actively investigated how shadows change as the light source is moved further away from an object. They worked in teams to take measurements and look for patterns in the data they collected.
The class discovered that:
- an object close to the screen casts the clearest shadow
- the distance of the light source from the object affects the size of the shadow
- the further away the light source, the smaller the shadow.
Were there any patterns?
“Our results did show that the shadow of the object gets bigger the closer it gets to the light source.” Group 4
“Our results did not really have a pattern. We thought that the reason for this might’ve been that the room wasn’t dark enough. Our shadow was hard to see and measure.” Group 1
Finally, the children used their results to form a conclusion. 
Great investigating Year 4!
At playtime, it was lovely to see that some of Year 4 were creating their own shadows using the sun as the light source.
