Light

• Play with flashlights in a dark room. You could also hide a letter L (cut out of paper, a foam letter or a plastic letter magnet) somewhere in the room. Use your flashlights to find the letter L!

• Prisms & Sunshine = Rainbows!
  1. Give the kids a prism (I’ve seen them in craft stores. You can also try using a clear glass filled with water or find them here).
  2. Hold it up to the sunshine coming directly through the window (or try a flashlight on a cloudy day).
  3. Watch all of the rainbows on the wall and floor! My kids like to try to catch the rainbows.
  4. See if the kids can name all of the colors they see.
  5. Draw a rainbow on a piece of paper.
• Play with mirrors in the sunlight (make light reflections on the wall)
• Make shadows
  1. Hang a white sheet so it's smooth.
  2. In a darkened room, set a toy behind the sheet and shine a light on it. The shadow will appear on the sheet.
  3. Have the kids guess what it is.
  4. OR … let the kids take turns dancing or making hand shapes behind the sheet.
• Match shadows
  1. Print out 8-10 clipart images (car, tree, cat, truck, ball, etc)
  2. Stack a piece of black construction paper behind the clipart and cut them out. You will end up with a color image and it's shadow.
  3. Let the kids match them.
• Play with a Lite Brite … available here for about $15 or stores like Target or Wal-Mart.