Our Shadow Selves from Canada

Unfortunately we had very poor weather with gray skies and rain for much of the time, so were unable to check out our shadows outside. As a result, we created our "shadow selves" by reflecting what we felt and liked on the inside, into a drawing for others to see. We gave our nod to the idea of shadows (e.g., being dark) by drawing with charcoal on the black background. The students really liked the opportunity to explore and draw the things that they liked and that represented them with charcoal. They were very eager and excited to explore both the medium and the topic!

To see the wonderful presentation Kaarina made of the artworks and creative process, please click here.

Kaarina Losey

Kaarina Losey is the 6th grade teacher at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.  Her group of artists are making and sharing art with the Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

The Tigers shadow play

How are shadows made?  What are they?  How can we play with them?

We first started this Dear You workshop by exploring different ways of creating shadows using natural light and flashlights. The light was shining so beautifully that day in Espoo that we didn't need to try so hard! 

After we got the hang of shadows we then used it to create artwork! Some of us took a more realistic approach and others took a more imaginative and symbolic approach. During the artistic process a few Tigers wanted to turn their creations into shadow puppets!  

At the end of the workshop, we all gathered around and shared thoughts about our own works and what we thought about our fellow artists' creations.

L: V's drawing made me real scared.

Ad: I saw that my shadow looked silvery.

Misk: The shadow of myself.

R: It's the shadow of my hand on the floor.

Ne: I draw what my body looks like with a heart. I like Miska's shadow.

P: My shadow portrait is a story of my family and the jungle. My daddy is 99 and my mommy is 36.

U: Neha's artwork is awesome. I drew the shadow of my hand. My hand controls everything.

V: How was it possible that the pencil shined when we used it on black cardboard? My shadow portrait is a long story about me and some animals.

So much amazing insight!

With love,
The Tigers, Arlene, Toti, and Zeynab

The 4-5 year old Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2E from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

Shadowing our shadows in Singapore!

Moving from shadows of constructions to shadows of people was interesting. Shadows that move and shadows from still objects differ. Sometimes objects do not move but their shadows do.

When Arlene shared a sample of a picture of shadows, I pondered how children might think and draw about their shadows . Initally children drew the shadows of their friends at the carpark.. Then they drew shadow images of their friends on the paper. It was tough for friends to keep still. But what was even more challenging was drawing their own shadows. They shared that it was nearly impossible after trying.  Watching a shadow drama on youtube helped children realise that they could actually form different shapes with their body. 

Sometimes the shadows do not look anything like how we expect them to be. E.g. Caitlin formed the shape of a table but the shadow formed under her was different from the shadow that appeared on the side wall. The shadow did not appear like a table on the floor. Sometimes they look abstract and formless but at times they look like something else, decieving our eyes.

This was what children shared:

Jordan: Can you see an elephant spraying water? Can you see a lion eating a Zebra? Can you see a giraffe trying to fight a tiger? Oops! I forgot to draw the tiger!

Xi Wen: Can you see a giraffe? Can you see a dinosaur? Can you see a sea-lion? Can you see a chair and a castle?

Lin Jia Wen: Can you see an elephant eating a carrot? Can you see a Prince and a Princess?

Oliver: Can you see a lion growling?

Leeann: Can you see a panda at the Zoo? Can you see the Prince and Princess too?

Emilia: Can you see a giraffe eating leaves? Can you see a human shadow?

Caitlin: Can you see lines inside each of the shadows? But how can a shadow dance by itself?

Advaith: Can you see armours here? Can you see a dinosaur roaring?

Aahan: Can you see a shadow of a lepoard? Can you see the shadows on my name?

Avinaash: Can you see the shadow of a tiger? Can you see the shadow of a tall building and a house?

Warm Regards,

Rachel

The 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa.

Experimenting with experience

We experimented with light and shadows of various objects. We used flashlights, daylight, doc. camera light...... Unfortunately, there was no sun today and we couldn't experiment with the sun light. This is what the kids discovered: 

- Shadows appear if there is a source of light. We experimented with flashlights to see the shadows of various objects around the classroom.

- The size of the shadows change depending on the distance of the object from the source of light

- Some students used the day light to see the shadows of real objects. They noticed a difference in shadows created by flashlight and daylight.

We learned how the light travels, what happens to the light when passing through objects.  We will continue exploring shadows and light building rich imagination and creating our self-portraits.  We are sending pictures from our class exploration on shadows.  

They worked together, observed, tried, made errors and tried again which is huge experience in character building.   

I can't wait to see what would their self-portraits look like.

Thank you!

Dance A-V

The 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada are making and sharing art with the 10 years olds from Kepa School in Karelia, Russia. 

***

Мы использовали фонарики, дневной свет, вспышку от фотоаппарата. К сожалению, солнца в тот день не было, поэтому не смогли поработать с солнечным светом. 

Вот что нового наши дети узнали:

- Тень появляется, когда есть источник света. Мы рассмотрели тени от разных предметов в нашей классной комнате.

- Размер тень зависит от расстояния между источником света и предметом.

- Мы поговорили о различии между тенью от естественного и искусственного источника света. 

Мы узнали, как свете перемещается сквозь предметы. Мы продолжаем изучать свет и тень, и создавать с их помощью свои автопортреты. Интересно, какие же они получатся!

Спасибо!

Playing with light and shadow!

Everybody is so excited to receive artwork from their friends in Dubai!

Everybody is so excited to receive artwork from their friends in Dubai!

Everybody is so excited to receive artwork from their friends in Dubai!

Once again I find myself amazed by the kids response to this experience. Earlier this week we got mail from our friends in Dubai and you could love their faces looking at the houses of their friends abroad, the names of the kids in Dubai were a sensation because they are so different from their names. 

Today we got to explore our shadows and we went outside, in pairs they helped each other trace their shadows and some of them even made silly poses. They had a blast! Then we came back to the classroom and they did the dame using our projector's light to trace the shadow of a part of their body. The cool thing was seeing them trying to come up with cool shapes for their friends!"

Saludos,
Mrs. Vicke Benavides

The 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with the 4-6 year olds in KG2C from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.