Babipur STEM: Shadows

#babipurSTEM

We thought this fortnight you could make the most of the beautiful Autumn light just now and explore the theme of SHADOWS!

We’ve had loads of ideas for shadow shenanigans so we hope you’ll get creative and join in.

Shadows

Shadows are caused when light is blocked by an object. Depending on the age of your children you could discuss a bit about how might causes shadows to begin with.

There are 3 types of objects that causes shadows;

• Translucent(ALL light passes through)
• Transparent (MOST light passes through)
• Opaque (SOME light passes through)

You can link shadow play to STEM by making your children predict what object might make a shadow, or what kind of shadow it’ll make. You can then go ahead look and see what happens. Then you can encourage them to mix it up and see what happens if you do it again in a different place or with a different object.

For example, we took advantage of the fading light and tried to make the biggest shadow by positioning toys around our front room.

You could draw around the shadows created and this would make a lovely crafty activity. You could also do a supersized picture in the garden under the shadow of a tree, which would be amazing too!

Light and shadows

Playing with light goes hand in hand with shadows. Great fun in the dark with shadow puppets or making a game of it and trying to guess different objects you could hold up. Using your phone torch can create really visual results too.

We had lots of fun playing with the Plan Toys water blocks to make some colourful shadows and then create different colours by layering up the blocks. Fun and educational, a nice win win for little ones!

We are going to see if we can make a sun dial with the Wobbel360 and some blocks before this challenge is over!

How do you enter?

All you have to do is post a picture or video on your public Instagram account or in the Babipur Hangout Group on Facebook showing you and your little ones making learning fun with STEM exploring the topic of shadows. Use the tag #babipurSTEM so we can find your entry and on Instagram don’t forget to tag @Babipur too!

Multiple entries are encouraged and we’ll post some more STEMspiration for you over the fortnight.

The challenge will run for 2 weeks and entries will count from today up to Wednesday 5th December 2018 at 11am. Both the winner and the next challenge will be announced later that day.

What’s the prize?

The prize this fortnight is a £20 Babipur voucher to spend on Wooden Animals of your choice!  We’ve got Lanka Kade, Holztiger, Ostheimer and Eric & Alberts well stocked for you to choose from.

We can’t wait to see your entries and we love looking at how you make learning fun with Babipur.