Fall and winter days bring shorter daylight hours. Make the most of this time of year with these fun light and shadow games for kids.
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The days are growing cooler and shorter, and there’s less time to play outside after school. This month Energizer sent us a flashlight and batteries to craft a sponsored post. The flashlight reminded me of childhood camping trips. My parents took us camping quite a bit! Sometimes we would sit in the tent and shine the flashlight on the tent walls. My mom taught us how to make different shadow shapes using our hands. I realized that the shorter days of fall and winter are perfect for playing with light and shadow!
Light and Shadow Games for Kids
Energizer sent us their Emergency All-in-One Light. Its coolest feature is that it can turn into its own little tripod standing, making it perfect for light and shadow games.
We started off with the same hand shadows my mom taught us. If you can’t tell, that’s a gigantic bird swooping down in the photo above.
Nine-year-old Johnny tried building different shadow shapes to project onto the wall. This one is a pine tree.
Five-year-old Anna is really into decorating robot cut-outs right now. You may recognize them from Emma’s fifth birthday party. It turns out I held onto the extras for a reason!
Anna loved seeing her robot grow and shrink based on how close she held it to the flashlight. The flashlight reminded them of a spotlight, inspiring this performance:
Their cousins introduced them to Hamilton. Fair warning to parents: this particular clip is fine, but the musical on the whole is not G rated. History never is.
What are your favorite ways to play with light and shadows with your kids?
Thank you, Energizer, for sponsoring this post. all opinions are my own.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
A tripod is awesome for a flashlight!
My daughter gets to listen to an abridged version of the musical. She really only likes a few songs from it, but it amuses me.
The Chinese have had traveling entertainers do just this: shadow puppet story telling! Very cool to see your kids doing the same thing!
I love how the flashlight has a tripod!
Isn’t that clever? It’s the coolest/most versatile flashlight I’ve seen.