🔬 Sun and Shadow Play
Juego de sol y sombras
🔬 Science
K-PS3-1K-ESS2-1
Objective: Child explores how sunlight makes shadows, observes that shadows change with the light, and connects shadows to the sun's position.
🧺 Materials
- a sunny spot or a flashlight
- sidewalk chalk (optional)
- a small toy or your own bodies
📋 Instructions (parent)
- Go to a sunny spot outside or shine a flashlight in a dim room.
- Find your shadow and wave at it; talk about how the sun's light makes the shadow.
- Make your shadow big, small, and silly by moving your body.
- Trace a toy's shadow with chalk, then move the toy and notice the shadow move too.
- Block the light with your hand and watch the shadow appear and disappear.
- Talk about why shadows happen: light cannot shine through us, so it makes a dark shape.
➕ Extension ideas
- Check the same shadow in the morning and afternoon and see how it moved.
- Make shadow puppets on a wall with a flashlight after dark.
🗣️ Parent script — say it in Spanish
Español
El sol nos da luz, y cuando la luz no puede pasar por nuestro cuerpo, ¡aparece una sombra! Vamos a jugar con nuestras sombras. ¿Puedes hacer una sombra muy grande? ¡Mírala bailar contigo!
💬 Conversation prompts
- ¿De dónde viene la luz?
- ¿Puedes hacer tu sombra más grande?
- ¿Por qué crees que hay una sombra?
- ¿Qué pasa con la sombra si te mueves?
- ¿Dónde está el sol en el cielo?
🔑 Vocabulary
- sombra — shadow
- luz — light
- sol — sun
- oscuro — dark
- grande — big
- pequeño — small
Other ways to do it
⚡ 5-minute version
Step into a sunbeam and make three quick shadow shapes with your hands.
🚗 Car version
Look for shadows of trees and poles out the window and say 'sombra' each time you spot one.
😴 No-energy version
Shine a phone light on the wall and make lazy shadow bunnies from the couch.
🎯 California standards covered
| K-PS3-1 | Sunlight & Warmth “I can watch how the sun warms up things outside.” |
| K-ESS2-1 | Watching the Weather “I can watch the weather and notice how it changes.” |