Dinosaurs shadows... and shadow exploration...

Yesterday was a busy day. Lots of ideas with the children surfacing - and then an evening full of mind expansion with Debi Keyte-Hartland.

In the morning we were looking at the dinosaurs on the wall again... I wanted to show the shadows in a way that would allow us to explore the other side of the wall, as one child was very sure that the image on the wall was the result of the dinosaur being on the other side of the wall (running around the swimming pool "eating all the children").

In the morning shadow exploration there were three main questions... that the children asked and that we explored just a little.... leaving room for a deeper exploration of each of these questions...

The first question was why the dinosaur on the OverHead was facing one direction but the shadow on the wall was facing the other direction. The diosaur was moved around... even put against the wall where the shadow matched... to be put back on the OH for the shadow to change direction again... we explored ourselvesin the big mirrors and looked at our name in the mirror... a connection was made... but we need to return and explore this again so that all the children can make the connection...

The children went to see behind the wall to see if there was a dinosaur there creating the image on the wall... half of the children saw nothing, half of the children saw dinosaurs... some saw T-rex, despite the fact it was a brachiosaurus shadow, and one saw a fire-breathing dinosaur with wings...
When I asked where the wings were on the shadow the child was able to point to where the wings were... (picture below)

The final question was why do shadows get bigger and smaller... we played a little with the positioning of the OH, and also moved the dinosaurs.

As we finished the session I asked the question... are shadows always black... and that in the afternoon they would have the opportunity to explore that (and think about it in between).

 Playing with colour and light - stacking so many on top of each other until the shadow became black/gray again. Magnetic tiles and ice-cream spoons. Exploring the wall to find the colour again...

 These shadows were not so colourful, but there were small rainbows if you looked carefully. They also gave you leopard skin!!

 Counting on the OH and then counting on the wall... then returning to the OH just to make sure one more time

 Creating colour shadows with the magnetic tiles... one child went to see if the shadows were magnetic too... they were not, it kept falling down.

More explorations with plastic bowls and trays, counters, transparent duplo, ice-cream spoons, glass beads

And today the children returned to the coloured shadow explorations - mermaids and plastic cups etc joining in the fun... this time some of the children were jumping into the light exclaining "fairy princess me", and then jumping out of the light exclaiming, "me again" - in and out of the light - being transformed by its colourful magic.

Dinosaurs and fossils... life and death

This morning we started the day off with images projected onto the wall of dinosaurs, skeletons, fossils of dinosaurs and their footprints. The children talked about what they saw and discussed with each other about whether or not theu agreed with each other, and why they did or did not... suggestions were made that they were dragons and lizards, that they could be found on the other side of the wall they were projected on and be eating children there (no it can't a skeleton can't move or eat - and a discussion about whether or not a skeleton could move or not, and what ideas they had about this... lots of interesting ideas... but I would like to try and experiment with a different wall to project on so that the children can go to the other side and see if there is a dinosaur there if one is projected on the wall). There was talk about dinosaurs being alive, and being dead, being long ago and living now - having long necks so that they could reach airplanes...
We have plenty of fuel to move forwards with...

In the afternoon we used some white air-drying clay to make some home-made fossils... either a head, or fottprints, or a tail... four children tried this out today in the short time between waking up from rest and naps and snack being served... three sets of footprints (3 different dinosaurs) and a head (the same as one of the footprints). My son has been kind enough to lend me his dinosaurs for the project... and they are being much appreciated by the children.

We also had time for some small-world dinosaur play - where the dinosaurs kept dying and turning into skeletons and then coming back to life again... some got buried in the sand, others received elaborate graves...

applying great pressure and concentration to create footprints in the clay.

Triceratops footprints

Triceratops head

small world play - real fossils being a part of the play...

Dinosaur shadows...

Today we started the dinosaur project... or at least what could devlop into a project... the interest is there... we will see if it develops... and it links in with death, something that has been pre-occupying the children's play for the last few weeks... so hopefully we can meet two interests at the same time...

We explored shadows... using dinosaurs figures and the overhead... there was lots of energy - and we were joined by the same age-group from Filosofiska's sibling preschool in Skarpnäck... so it was double the fun. Most of these photographs come from the short time Vinden children explored the shadows by themselves. Once there were 18 children in the room it was much busier and harder to focus on the stories of the children's learning... it was an experience of children meeting each other and exploring the shadows together... which sometimes meant that a child blocked all light in their discoveries right as I took a photo...
BUT the photos are there to serve as a memory of the learning, exploration and the meeting of these two groups... not as being amazing images that stand as works of art... but sometimes I do think that photographs are very special and beautiful (but maybe that is because I feel the story behind the photo too?)

is there anyone who is as big as this dinosaur... exploring size (moving the dinsoaurs closer to the wall, they discovered created a smaller shadow)

climbing on to the back of the dinosaur (which was making noises very much like a horse)

playing on the OH surface - dinosaurs interacting with each other, children watching how their dinosaur created shadows... and placing on the OH did not gurantee you kew exactly whwre on the wall the shadow would fall... especially as the light fell on the floor and the roof!

creating dinosaur shaped shadows with their own bodies...

more dino inspiration outside