STEAM Saturday – Halloween Shadow Puppets! (10/26/2024)

Halloween shadow puppets featured image

On this STEAM Saturday, we’re continuing to dive into “spooky season” with some more Halloween STEAM!  Your little pumpkin can explore light and shadow while creating Halloween Shadow Puppets!  This is a great activity for a Halloween party, or place these paranormal puppets around your home to get into the spooky spirit.

A pumpkin shadow puppet with a flashlight shining on it creating a shadow on a wallHere’s what you’ll need for this simple and fun activity:

  • Black or orange card stock (or you can color white card stock)
  • Scissors
  • Flashlight
  • Colored Cellophane (optional)
  • Double sided tape (optional)
  • Popsicle or craft sticks (optional)

First, draw an outline of your Halloween-themed shape on your card stock.  Some ideas include bats, pumpkins, ghosts, and witches hats.  Next, cut out your shadow puppets.  If you have colored cellophane, you can cut out shapes in the middle of your puppets (for example, cut a face into your pumpkin) and tape cellophane over the holes.  You might also choose to attach a popsicle or craft stick to your puppets to make them easier to hold.

A bat shadow puppet with a flashlight shining on it creating a shadow on a wallNow, it’s time to play with your puppets and explore light and shadow.  One person should hold a puppet in front of an empty wall, while a second person points a flashlight at it.  Take a look at the shadow it produces.  Now, move the flashlight closer to the puppet.  What happens to the shadow?  Does the size or shape change?  What happens when you move the flashlight farther away?

What is the science behind our shadow puppets?  In terms of the way light passes through objects, they can take three different forms.  If an object is transparent (see through), light can pass all the way through it.  It can be translucent, which means that some light can pass through, but it is not completely see through.  Finally, an object can be opaque, which means that it blocks all light from passing through.

A shadow occurs when light hits an opaque or translucent object.  Your puppets are opaque, so when the light from your flashlight hits them, a spooky shadow is created.  If you used colored cellophane, you will see that some colored light passed through onto the wall.

Click here to check out the full experiment, along with a free puppet template, from Science Sparks!

As always, get as creative as you want, and above all, have lots of fun learning together!

We’ll see you right back here next Saturday for another STEAM Saturday activity!  Scroll through the rest of our website to learn how Critchlow Adkins is Building Brighter Futures for the children and families we serve!

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