Lesson Overview:
Through online learning tools and the creation of shadow puppets and plays, students will learn how light interacts with matter. This lesson serves as an introduction to the properties of light and its role in creating shadows. While using puppets created by students and performing shadow plays, students will learn, first-hand, what differentiates opaque, translucent, and transparent materials. They will also learn how light travels and how an object's shadow is affected by the intensity and position of light in relation to both the object and the surface on which a shadow is cast.
Length of Lesson:
Six 45-minute class periods
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- make predictions about the way light travels and determine whether the predictions are correct.
- use online resources to learn how shadows are formed.
- demonstrate an understanding of the terms translucent, opaque, and transparent through the creation of shadow puppets.
- explore the way light interacts with matter by way of transmission, absorption, and reflection.
- make observations about the properties of shadows based on online interactive activities.
- experiment with a light source, puppet, and screen to create different shadow effects, demonstrating an understanding that the properties of a shadow are determined by the intensity and position of the light source
and the distances and angles between the light, object, and surface.
- in groups, create and perform shadow plays.
Supplies:
For the Student:
- Pen and journal
- Computer with Internet access
For the Teacher:
- Projector
- Flashlights
- Playing cards with a hole punched through each card
- String (cut into one-yard pieces)
- Materials for making shadow puppets: card stock or bristol board; wooden rods, bamboo skewers, or thick plastic drinking straws; tape; scissors; paper fasteners; and a hole punch (optional materials for decorative details include colored cellophane, scraps of lace and tulle, pipe cleaners, and yarn)
- Measuring tape
- Pieces of translucent fabric like cotton, linen, or gauze
- A large piece of translucent fabric stretched across a sturdy frame (i.e., a sturdy cardboard box, wooden stretcher strips, or a doorframe)
- Staple gun and staples
- L shaped metal or wooden braces for the frame (so the frame will balance and stand on its own)
(optional)
- Small lamp with flexible neck ("gooseneck") and light bulb (experiment with light bulb wattage for best effects) for shadow puppet performance
Instructional Plan:
Note: This lesson plan utilizes the ARTSEDGE site, Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppetry, as a teaching tool. To teach several sections of this lesson, you may wish to project the site onto a screen if this technology is available to you. Alternatively, you can schedule class time in a computer lab.
Warm Up
Tell students that they will be learning about the properties of light while exploring the art of shadow puppetry. Start by asking students what they think is necessary to form shadows. Explain that a shadow must have a light source, an object to block the light, and a surface on which the shadow forms.
Use the light from a projector and point it towards the front of the class. Next turn off the lights. Invite a student to volunteer to make a shadow by positioning his/her hands in front of the light source. Point out the three things necessary to make a shadow:
- a shadow must have a light source,
- a shadow must have an object to block the light, and
- a shadow must have a surface on which the shadow forms.
Ask students to predict how they think light travels. Does it move at angles, in a straight line, or around corners? Break students into groups of four. Hand each group a flashlight, two playing cards (each with a hole punched in it), and a piece of string. Ask students to determine how light moves by flashing light onto a surface, using one card to block the light, and using the string to follow the light that peeks through the hole in the card. Turn off the lights and tell students to write down their findings in their journals.
Now invite students to hold the second playing card next to the first playing card. Tell them that their goal is to make the light shine through to the surface as before. Ask students to write down how they must hold the cards to enable light to shine through to the surface. As a class, have students share their findings and confirm that light does, indeed, move in a straight line. Note that, in order for light to shine through to the surface, the holes in the playing cards must be aligned. In other words, the light does not bend to move from the first hole to the second. (You may wish to point out that, if the surface onto which the light is cast is shifted at an angle, the light will still move in a straight line; however the shape of the light cast on the surface will correspond to the surface's angle, thus the shape of the light will have a different appearance.)
Exploring Shadows
In a computer lab, have students explore the ARTSEDGE site, Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppetry. Have students click on the "Behind the Shadows" section of the site. (You may wish to first walk the class through the site by hooking your computer to a projector and explaining the various sections of the site.)
Inform students that, in shadow puppetry, the surface onto which shadows are cast is a screen. Puppets are manipulated between the screen and the light source, and the audience watches from the other side of the screen. Introduce the terms transparent, translucent, and opaque to students by having them read "The Screen: Casting the Shadow" on Playing with Shadows. Reinforce their understanding of the terms by inviting them to shift the slider on "The Screen: Casting the Shadow" to see the difference between the materials. Ask students to provide examples of transparent, translucent, and opaque materials in everyday objects.
Depending on the students' grade level, you may wish to provide students with more in-depth definitions of the terms as follows:
- transparent: describes a material that allows light to transmit; objects can be clearly seen through the material
- translucent: describes a material that allows some light to transmit; objects cannot be seen clearly through the material
- opaque: describes a material that absorbs or reflects all light; objects cannot be seen through the material
Have them write the definitions of the words in their journals, and inform them that you will quiz them on these terms the following day. Remind students that, as they saw in the warm-up activity, light travels from its source and moves outwards in a straight line. An opaque screen would block the light from passing through, and the audience would not be able to see the puppet show. A translucent screen would allow enough light for the audience to see the shadows, but—unlike a transparent screen—would keep the puppeteers from being seen. Be sure to reinforce the meaning and application of these terms throughout the day, as appropriate.
Inform students that they will be making their own shadow puppets and will use this puppet to conduct further investigations into the properties of light and shadows. Tell students to read "The Puppet" in the "Behind the Shadows" section of Playing with Shadows for instructions on how to make shadow puppets. For homework, students should come up with their own character for a puppet and bring in drawings that outline each of the puppet's parts. Inform students that they can create any puppet they wish. Point them to the videos in the "Video Play list" of Playing with Shadows for inspiration. (You may wish to provide stricter puppet-making guidelines; depending on the kind of puppet show you would like your class to create. For example, you could invite students to write plays about important scientists and their discoveries or extraterrestrials from a planet in our solar system explaining the properties and features of their planet.)
Have the students use their journals to brainstorm what kind of puppet they would like to create. Make sure they give careful consideration to how they will carry out their ideas. Urge them to keep their puppets simple for their first try and have them outline how they will create their puppets in their journals. You may wish to pass out basic templates that students can embellish with their own decorations. Bryant and Heard's Making Shadow Puppets (see the "Sources" section of this lesson plan) is a great resource that contains many easy-to-follow templates. The idea is to get students excited to work with shadows and light through the
creation of puppets and plays, and not get bogged down in the actual creation of the puppets.
Shadow Puppets and Their Effects
Teacher Preparation: In the next activities, students will be creating their shadow puppets. Set up the shadow puppet stage beforehand so that they can see how their shadows look on the screen. To create a screen, stretch a large piece of translucent fabric taut across a sturdy frame (i.e., a cardboard box, wooden stretcher strips, or a doorframe). After you make sure there are no wrinkles in the fabric, staple the fabric to the puppeteer-side of the frame so the audience does not see the edges of the fabric. Balance your screen on the L-shaped metal or wooden braces, or simply set the screen on a desk. Plug in a lamp behind the screen. Experiment with different light bulb wattages for the right effect based on the placement of the lamp in relation to the stage, and the size of your classroom and the screen.
Provide students with materials to construct their own shadow puppets (see the "Supplies" section of this lesson plan). Ask students to point out which materials are translucent, opaque, and transparent.
Remind students to pick their materials wisely. They may wish to use a combination of opaque and translucent materials for different shadow effects. Encourage students to use these terms when referring to their puppets. Have them explore "The Puppet: Design Details" on Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppetry to see the shadow effects of different materials. As described in "The Puppet" demo in Playing with Shadows, students may also wish to create patterns on an opaque material by poking tiny holes in their material with a sharp pencil (i.e., stripes, ties, flowers, etc.) Like in Indonesian shadow puppets, these holes will allow light to shine through and the patterns will be visible during the shadow play. Point out to students that any patterns they paint, paste, or draw on an opaque puppet will not be visible on the screen. Once students have completed their puppets, set them aside.
Explain to students that the properties of shadows will change based on the intensity and position of the light source, as well as with the distance between the light and the object and between the object and the surface.
Next, direct students to navigate to "The Light" section of Playing with Shadows. Have students manipulate the shadow effects by shifting the slider indicating the amount of light intensity. Tell students to write down their observations in their journals.
Then direct students to navigate to "The Screen: Shaping the Shadow" (page 2 of "The Screen" section of Playing with Shadows.) Students should read this section and manipulate the shadow on the screen by dragging the puppet closer and farther away from the screen. Remind students to write down their observations in their journals.
Divide the class into groups of four. Give each group a flashlight, a piece of translucent fabric, and measuring tape. Have students work together to find the best placement of their puppets, the flashlight, and the screen to produce the sharpest shadow effect on the screen. Students should measure the distance between the puppet and screen, and screen and light source and jot down their measurements in their journals. After each group has conducted this activity, have them recreate the following shadow effects:
- a long shadow
- a short shadow
- the blurriest shadow possible
After each group has completed the activities, call on each group to show one type of shadow (long, short, sharp or blurry) to the class and explain how they created it.
Student Shadow Theater
With students still in groups of four, inform them that each group must create a short, five-minute shadow play using all four of the students' puppets. But before they begin, ask students to take out a piece of paper and write down the definitions to the words opaque, transparent, and translucent. Have them write their names on these quizzes and hand them in.
For inspiration, show students video clips of shadow puppet performances in the "Video Play list" of Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppetry. Before students work with their puppets on their puppet shows, have them practice manipulating puppets online in the "Puppet Studio" in Playing with Shadows. You may wish to give students class time to work on their shadow plays.
Tell students that their plays should have a beginning, middle, and end. For some basics tips to get your students started, see the ARTSEDGE How-to, The Basics of Storytelling. Another great resource is the ARTSEDGE How-to, Playwriting with Your Students.
You may wish to give students a theme based on topics you have recently studied (i.e., plays based on scientists' discoveries). Or, you might provide the class with possible topics based on everyday life that students can write fairly easily. Possible topics include: riding the bus to school, a family dinner, a day at the ball game, a holiday celebration, etc.
If you are interested in inviting students to create more elaborate plays, students could write plays inspired by the videos of folktales in ARTSEDGE's Playing with Shadows. For step-by-step instructions on writing tales with your students, see the ARTSEDGE lessons Writing an Original Fable and Folktale Theatre. You might also want to team-teach this lesson with a theater and/or English teacher in a unit on folktales (see the ARTSEDGE lesson Elements of Folktales).
While in class, have each group agree on the basic plot of their play. Then tell each student in the group of four to pick one of the following roles: Director, Script Writer, Prop Maker, and Set Maker. Pass out the worksheet, Your Shadow Theater Roles. While everyone should work as a team and can collaborate on ideas, each person will be responsible for completing their own
assignment. Tell students that the director is the team leader and should be able to work with each person in the group to make decisions. Each student must also be involved in performing the play and should decide who will manipulate which puppets, who will provide the voice, etc.
Inform students that their plays should have shadows that are, for the most part, sharp. However, their challenge is to follow the guidelines on the worksheet, Creating Your Shadow Play. Review the worksheet with students and allow them class time to work on their plays.
After students have rehearsed their plays, have each group perform their shadow plays for the rest of the class.
Assessment:
Assess students' learning based on the following criteria:
- Did the student define translucent, opaque, and transparent correctly in the quiz?
- Did each group include blurry, crisp, long, and short shadows in their plays?
- Did each play have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
- Is there evidence of effort and creativity in the creation and production of the shadow puppets and performance?
Use the Assessment Rubric to evaluate students' work.
Extensions:
Delve deeper into the properties of light, including colored light, with the Science NetLinks lesson plan, Making Light of Science.
Sources:
Print:
- Blackham, Olive. Shadow Puppets. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960.
- Bryant, Jill, and Catherine Heard. Making Shadow Puppets. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press, 2002.
Web:
Authors:
-
Theresa Sotto
Santa Monica, CA
