Science 5th grade | UNIT 5: Shadows 5.3 Silhouettes and shadow puppets
What is a silhouette?
An opaque object held between a light source and a screen gives you a shadow on the screen. The shadow of the object is a silhouette.
Try making a shadow silhouette of a butterfly with your hands. You will need a light source and a screen.
Join your hands using your thumbs. Your hands are the butterfly's wings.
Try making silhouettes of other things with your hands.
Shadow puppets
A shadow puppet uses a silhouette to represent the puppet.
Long ago, people recorded their history by telling stories. This was before writing was invented. In ancient China and Indonesia, storytellers used shadow puppets to help tell the stories. Each village's storyteller was known as a puppet master. When he put on a show, the whole village would watch. He used his hands and even his feet to make the puppets move. He also added noise effects. To project the shadows onto the screen, he hung a bowl of fire above his head.
Activity 5.3: (Make a shadow puppet show)
You will need: some cardboard, some bamboo sticks, some scissors, a hole punch, some masking tape a strong light source, a screen
What story are you going to tell?
Decide what puppets you need to make.
Sketch the shapes. Then trace the shapes on to the cardboard and cut them out with the scissors. Use a hole punch to make eyes and decoration holes.
Fasten sticks to the backs of your puppets with masking tape. Practise acting out the story with your shadow puppets.
Present your shadow puppet show to the class.
Questions
1- Draw a silhouette of a cat.
2- Compare the light source of a traditional Indonesian shadow puppet show with the light source you used for your show.
3- Explain why you could not use clear plastic to make shadow puppets.
4- What properties must a material have to make a good shadow puppet?