Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Children are often unaware of things unless their attention is drawn to them. When they are drawing a picture, we leave them alone. However, there is no reason why 4-7 year-olds shouldn't be more observant and draw with more understanding of what they see. The Montessori sensorial teaching material makes them much more aware of color, shape, size and texture.
Now we want them to become aware of light and dark, positive and negative, and shadow. Read Stevenson's poem about shadow. Take them out to the playground at different times of the day. They become aware of their own shadows and those of different people. (They enjoy playing Shadow Tag.) However, they're not aware that the tree casts a shadow. Everything casts a shadow, even a cloud moving in front of the sun.
If the sun's rays penetrate the classroom window, you can set an object, like a vase, on a piece of white paper and look at the shadow. Have the children draw the vase and shadow, noticing that half the vase is in the shade.
Outside on playground, children could draw around each other's shadows on paper. They could also draw around the shadow of a chair, or a plant. Children also enjoy making shadow pictures with their hands.
Another handwork activity they enjoy is cutting out shadow puppets, mounting them on a stick, and creating a shadow play. Traditional shadow puppets are cut in a lacy style, and even pricked with pins to allow light to shine through them. Use an old sheet or a white plastic garbage bag stretched over a frame for the screen, and a lamp or projector as the light source. In some cultures, the shadow was thought to represent to soul of a person. In Bali this is one form of theater. There, the puppets are made out of dried buffalo leather.
Children can draw around each other's silhouettes on black paper using a white colored pencil or chalk, and then cut them out. Mount the silhouettes on white paper.
Man cannot create without knowledge. These exercises give children an understanding of shadow which they can apply or not when they are doing a picture of their own. Without this guidance, children often become dissatisfied with their progress and won't go near art.
Exercises in Negative and Positive
These exercises give practice in exact measuring and in applying cut forms to paper. This art form develops awareness of the interrelationships of geometric design.
Work in black and white so results are very bold.
Material
Presentation
Exercise 1
Invite the children to take black paper and cut out a simple basic shape (i.e., a square or triangle). Cut simple shapes out of the basic shape. Glue the black paper to the white paper, and reverse the black cut out shapes onto the white paper. This can make a very striking and bold design.
Exercise 2
Have the children cut out any natural or geometric form in black paper. They make any cuts they like through the form and move the sections slightly. The cuts can be curved or straight, and the children can arrange the pieces of paper before they paste them down.
Exercise 3
Using a long strip of paper, either in black or white, the children make any cuts they like. Mount the paper on the contrasting paper and reverse the cut out sections.
Exercise 4
Take 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of black and white paper and trim to 8" x 10". Divide both sheets of paper into 2" squares. Cut the white paper into 2" squares; then, cut out a design. Cut out the same design on nine additional white squares. Mount the white squares on every other square of the black paper. In between, mount the cut out white shapes on the black squares. The repeat forms a counterchange (exact opposite).
