Objective:
Students will investigate the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light through hands-on exploration and guided observation.

Books:

• Shadows Everywhere by Gina Shaw
• Building Sunshades by Marne Ventura

Discussion questions:
What do you think happens when light hits different things?
Can light go through everything? What makes it stop?
What do you see when light hits something shiny?
Why do some things make shadows and others don’t?
What happens when you put something clear in front of the flashlight?
How does light help us see things?
Can you find something in the room that light can’t go through?

We added the words Transparent, Translucent, and opaque to the word wall.

Activity: Transparent, Translucent, or Opaque?

• Shine flashlights onto each material. We used things such as toys, sunglasses, a mirror, tissues, wax paper, clear tape, and a water bottle.
• Observe and record:
• Does light pass through?
• Is it blurry or clear?
• Does it reflect?
• Is there a shadow?

Activity: Sunshades

We made two tents: one with black paper and the other with white paper. We placed them in the sun and the kids tried placing their hands under both. We discussed which tent felt warmer inside, and why. They did not actually notice any difference, so we placed ice cubes inside to see which one would melt faster. We talked about how black absorbs heat and light, while white reflects it.

Then we constructed our own sunshade with black paper, a straw, a plastic lid, and play doh. We set up our sunshade in the morning. We marked with chalk where it was so we could track its movement throughout the day.

We took two ice cubes and placed one in the shade and one in the sun. The kids talked about what they thought would happen. They guessed the ice cube in the shade would melt slower, and the experiment proved them right!

We checked back periodically to see how the shadow moved and to talk about how the sun moves across the sky each day, causing the shadow to move.

We read a passage from our science workbook. We have been using Science Lessons and Investigations Grade 1. There were a couple worksheets in there that we worked on as well. I wont be posting photos for copyright reasons.

I made a little shadow theater by cutting a hole in a cardboard box and taping a piece or parchment paper over the hole. You could also use wax paper or tissue paper. Then I cut out some pictures and glued them to popsicle sticks for the boys to use as puppets.

Here’s a picture of what the back looks like.

At the end of a lesson when I take the posters down from the word wall, I resuse them for a vocabulary quiz. I lay them out and cover up the definitions with a piece of paper. Then I read the definitions out loud and the kids have to guess the correct one. It’s basically a multiple choice quiz but more interactive.

If you would like the resources I made for this lesson, you can download them for free here: