Going on a Shadow Walk...

We went on a shadow walk today and it was so much darn fun!  Each student took a piece of paper on a clipboard and a pencil. I challenged the students to try to figure out what makes a shadow.  I told them it takes 3 things to make a shadow. I also told them to write any observations about shadows. It was so funny, I kept saying things like, "someone is following you" and "oh- you have a friend tagging along- how nice."  They got such a kick out of these comments about their shadows. We gathered after about 10-15 minutes to discuss our findings. One student said "you have to have the ground to have a shadow." BINGO- that's number one: a surface. A bunch of students said "the sun." That's number two: sun/light. I had to p-u-u-u-u-ll number three out by standing up and asking "what is my body doing to the light?" After some discussion, they finally came up with number three: something to block the sun.  There is nothing like hands-on learning!