Bambini children explored the light on a projector and shadows the overhead projector creates on the wall. In order to encourage the children to follow their natural interest and curiosity, we invited them to play by simply making the materials and tools available. Throughout the process, teachers discovered that each child approached the materials in a very unique and different way, and interacted with light and shadow by using their senses- seeing, hearing, and touching.
M and R noticed the shadows of their hands
and explored by moving their fingers and palms.
J was very curious about the images of pattern blocks projected onto the wall. He walked up to the wall and put a yellow hexagon over the projected image of hexagon.
E placed pattern blocks on the projector. She was constantly looking back and forth between the images on the wall and the block pieces placed on the projector. At one point, she was making a design just by looking at the image on the wall.
D placed African animal replicas on the glass of the projector. He put each animal, one by one, slowly and carefully. As he lined them up, he looked from the side to see how the light shone up the animals. D discovered the light from the bottom gave each animal a different look and appearance.
B decided to color over the projected images. He was trying to match the color of marker with the one projected on the wall. But, he realized, when he tried to color a red trapezoid with a red marker, the image of the red trapezoid disappeared; Teacher and Becket discovered his own shadow was over the projected images. As a solution, B started to draw in a circular motion so that he could color over the colorful images of shapes without disturbing the images with his own shadow.
F was very interested in his own shadow. He stood in front of the wall and explored how his body movement affected his projected shadow by moving his arms and a stuffed animal dog around.
F “Look at my shadow.. Do you see a doggie’s shadow?”
Teacher: What is shadow?
F “My shadow is over, on the wall.”
Teacher: What is shadow?
F “My shadow is over, on the wall.”
K noticed that when he built with translucent Lego blocks on the projector would be projected onto the wall. K looked up to check the images on the wall everytime he added another piece.
Teacher “Look, I wonder why some of the color of blocks are not projected on the wall.”
E moved around a piece of block on the surface of the projector to see how it showed on the wall.
E “I see it.”
Teacher “I see the red and yellow blocks, but I do not see the colorful building that D made. It shows gray.”
D moved his building to see how it would change the image projected on the wall. When D laid it down horizontally, the colorful image of the building appeared on the wall.
D and E along with a teacher discovered the color of blocks did not show on the wall when many pieces were stacked together.
E moved around a piece of block on the surface of the projector to see how it showed on the wall.
E “I see it.”
Teacher “I see the red and yellow blocks, but I do not see the colorful building that D made. It shows gray.”
D moved his building to see how it would change the image projected on the wall. When D laid it down horizontally, the colorful image of the building appeared on the wall.
D and E along with a teacher discovered the color of blocks did not show on the wall when many pieces were stacked together.
P “ What’s that noise?” “I see something different.”
P was interested in what the projector does. First, he noticed the noise the projector made. After listening to the noise for a few minutes, P became curious about where the light beamed from, and looked into the light area.
P was interested in what the projector does. First, he noticed the noise the projector made. After listening to the noise for a few minutes, P became curious about where the light beamed from, and looked into the light area.