Pre K - Dancing with Shadow Week 3

This week LaMonique and I taught how shadows can dance. Our big activity was making foam stamps. The students would heat up the foam and press it into a textured object.  Then they would stamp it in black ink and onto a piece of paper of their chose, which were foam, water color paper, and construction paper.  Once they were done we gave them the options of going to one of the four centers set up or drawing on paper that was tapped to the tables.  The four centers were the book center, projector center, shadow play, and shadowed wires.  At the book center were books based on shadows and dance.  The projector center had objects the students could arrange with a piece of foam and sheet pinned to the wall.  Each student had the opportunity to use sponges and paint the shadows on the "canvas".  Shadow play was a center were a screen was set up with a projector behind it.  Here the students could go in front of the light and project their shadow onto the screen. They were also able to where masks, hats, and other objects to change the way their shadow looked. Finally, shadowed wires was a center where each student could insert wire into Styrofoam and see the shadows that were produced from the light.  They also had the chance to trace the shadow with a black marker.

This week I thought our materials and ideas were well thought out.  We really thought about what the students would enjoy and find interesting. For example, we added the paper to the tables as another thing for them to do so they are engaged before and after the big activity and as a way for us to not get overwhelmed. Our ideas took us a bit to come up with,  but once we did we really put them into gear and took risks. One that sticks out in my head was for the projector center. We originally wanted to use canvas however, after getting the rest of the materials we decided to get foam and a sheet.  We got these items because of the idea that the paint would go through the sheet and imprint on the foam to make a "shadow".  Even though a lot of things went better this week, I think there is still more to work on for next week. Hopefully it goes even better!!