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Rafe Esquith: Five Tips to Help Children Develop Their Natural Gifts

#4334. Shadow activity

Science, level: all
Posted Mon Feb 2 15:55:17 PST 2009 by Barb & LInda on a Teachers.Net Chatboard (Barb & LInda on a Teachers.Net Chatboard).
Science Chatboard

Fun Groundhog Day lesson, also can be used any time of year during the study of the solar system, sun, earth's rotation, etc.

barb wrote:
We go out in the morning with our buddies and some chalk. We trace their shadows with the chalk and they each write their names in it. Then we go back in the afternoon and have the kids stand in exactly the same place they were this morning.

They are amazed that their shadows are not in the same position, and it leads to a lot of discussion about how the position of the sun affects the direction and size of their shadow.

Thanks Barb! We did this today (making 3 stops at our own shadow locations, as well as mark off North/South/East/West on a grid. I stood in the center and we marked my shadow and the time. It was a great way to discuss using the sun to tell
time!

Linda