Loading…
Torchlight Shadows
by My Book Hub Team
Jo explores a dark room with a torch and finds out how shadows form, and why they stretch and shrink.
What your child will learn
Explains how a shadow is formed.
Genre: educational
For ages 6-9
A peek inside
Jo stepped into the sitting room and closed the door. The curtains were shut and every lamp was off, so the space felt deep and dark. In one hand Jo held a bright yellow torch, ready for a quiet evening adventure. With a soft click, Jo switched it on. A warm beam of light cut through the darkness and lit a path across the carpet.
Jo pointed the torch straight ahead and watched the beam carefully. Light from the torch travelled in straight lines, racing across the room without bending around corners. Wherever the beam reached, the carpet and furniture looked bright and clear. Jo wiggled the torch and the bright patch slid smoothly over the wall. Light needs a source, and tonight that source was Jo’s yellow torch.
Jo set a wooden toy block right in the middle of the bright beam. Instantly a dark shape appeared on the carpet behind the block. Jo gasped. “Where did that dark patch come from?” The torch light could not pass through the solid wood. The place the light could not reach stayed dark. That dark patch was a shadow.
Jo crouched low to study the shadow more closely. A shadow forms when an object blocks light from a source like a torch. The blocked light never reaches the surface behind the object, so that area looks darker than the rest. Jo moved a hand through the beam and saw the same thing happen again. Blocking light is the simple secret behind every shadow.
Next Jo tried a clear plastic cup in the torch beam. Most of the light shone straight through the cup, and only a faint, pale shape appeared behind it. Then Jo tried a thick book. The book blocked nearly all the light and cast a strong, dark shadow. Opaque objects, which light cannot travel through, make the clearest shadows. Transparent things let light pass and leave weaker traces.
Jo held up a star-shaped biscuit cutter in the bright beam. The shadow on the wall looked like a star too. Then Jo tried a round ball, and the shadow became a soft circle. The outline of a shadow matches the shape of the object that blocks the light. Jo grinned. “My shadow is copying whatever I choose!” Shape is one important clue a shadow always gives.
Jo kept the block still and slowly moved the yellow torch higher. The shadow on the floor grew shorter and slid closer to the block. When Jo lowered the torch near the carpet, the shadow stretched long and thin across the room. The position of the light source changes a shadow’s length and direction. Jo practised until the shadow danced exactly where Jo wanted.
More books for ages 6-9
- Follow the Raindrop: A Garden Adventure
- Sunny Shadows at the Rockpool
- Sensory Garden Safari: Spot, Sniff, Listen, Touch and Taste!
- Push, Pull, Whoosh at the Playground
- Bend and Stretch: How Our Muscles Move Our Bones
- Through Kit's Greenhouse Window
Find more like this
Adventure and mystery · Educational books · Science books · More books for ages 6-9