Science in Year 3 - Physics - Light and Shadow

Date: 16th Jan 2023 @ 2:58pm

This half term we are investigating light and seeing.  We already know that light from a source (such as lamps, the sun, torch, candle…) then reflects off an object into our eyes.  Our brain tells us what we are looking at.

Today we played around with shadows. We learned that a shadow is made when an opaque object blocks light from a source.

As Year 3 scientists, we noticed

‘The shape of the object matches the shadow’

‘The shadow points in the same direction from where the light waves are coming from’

‘The opaque object blocks light to make a dark image (shadow)’

 ‘A shadow has no colours, just the shape of the object’

We also made some other interesting observations.

‘I made a big and small shadow as well as long and short’

My shadow changed direction when I moved the torch’

The children will be addressing these ideas next week. Year 3 will be also studying shadows made by the sun throughout the day and understanding why they change length and direction at different times.

All the children agreed that this was a lot of fun and every single scientific conclusion was made by their own observations and reasoning.