We have been incorporating the flashlights within the classroom these past two weeks. The children have been very interested in moving the light and observing how it looks when shone on different surfaces. They have been shining it onto the floor, the wall, the ceiling, and clothing and into mirrors.
During a lesson where the children were observing their shadows, many of the children brought over flashlights. They would aim their lights onto the wall, onto their shadows and then back towards the projector where the light was coming from. They were testing out how the light looked when shone on these different surfaces.
Then we placed a mirror underneath a table where the children
would crawl on top of it. As they would crawl underneath the table, the
children would bring the flashlights with them and shine the light into the
mirror. A few children would lie on their backs
looking upwards shining their flashlight to the bottom of the table. This has
showed us that the children’s thinking by how they associate the light to be
aiming upwards while lying down. We would like to place foil or mirrors to the
bottom of a table so the children will be able to lie down and look up at
themselves with the flashlight.Many of the children have also been walking around with the flashlights and shining them onto the ceiling. They follow the light with their eyes and have been spinning their bodies to make the light move. One child held two flashlights up to the ceiling and was observing how they made light on two different spots on the ceiling.
These are a few of the explorations we have been doing that are
focused on the motion of light. These explorations will become more in depth as
the weeks go on.
