Shadow Drawing
in Science
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How to explain abstract concepts like time to 9–13-year-olds? In this exercise, children understand the concept of time by drawing shadows of different objects.
Have the child find any object that they would like to draw.
Place the object on a blank sheet of paper in natural sunlight. Ask children to adjust the placement of the object until they see a shadow on the paper. Do you get a shadow? If yes, draw it. If not, why not? Try moving the paper and object somewhere else so that a shadow is created.
Using a pen or pencil, ask children to draw the outline of the shadow formed by the object.
Explain to children what the length and angle of the shadow mean, and how they reflect the time of day and
position of the sun relative to the object.
Repeat the activity at different times of day to understand how time affects shadows.
Activity extension: Children can decorate the shadow drawing using colours.
Activity extension: Repeat the same activity using a torch instead of sunlight. Experiment with moving the torch closer to or farther away from the object. How does changing the position of the torch and distance from the
object change the shadow? Does it get smaller? Bigger? Longer? Shorter? Rest the torch on something so that the child can use both hands to draw the shadow.
Alternative for paper: You can draw the object’s shadow on the ground using a stick.