🌞🔦 Light & Shadows STEM – Explore How Light Works (Kindergarten–Grade 2)

Engage your students in hands-on science as they explore how light travels and how shadows are formed! This interactive 10-page STEM resource helps young learners understand the relationship between light, objects, and shadows through simple experiments and observation activities.

In this activity, students investigate how light works using flashlights, everyday objects, and fun shadow experiments.

This printable PDF includes guided exploration, prediction pages, hands-on testing, sorting activities, and reflection sheets.

📘 What Students Will Learn:

• Light helps us see and comes from sources like the sun and flashlights (page 2).
  
• Shadows are created when an object blocks light (page 3).
  
• Moving a flashlight closer or farther changes the size of a shadow (pages 4–5).
  
• The difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque objects (page 6).
  
• How to design and test a simple shadow puppet (page 7).
  
• Light travels in straight lines (STEM connection page 9).
  

⭐ What’s Included (10 Pages):

✔ Cover page
✔ What Is Light? sorting activity
✔ What Is a Shadow? worksheet
✔ Prediction page
✔ Shadow Test experiment sheet
✔ Transparent, Translucent, or Opaque sorting activity
✔ Build a Shadow Puppet hands-on activity
✔ Observation & reflection page
✔ STEM Connection page (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
✔ Thank you/review page

🧠 Skills Students Practice:

• Scientific observation
  
• Making predictions
  
• Cause and effect reasoning
  
• Comparing shadow sizes
  
• Sorting and classification
  
• Hands-on experimentation
  
• STEM connections
  

✅ Perfect For:

• Light and energy units
  
• STEM centers
  
• Science lab stations
  
• Small group activities
  
• Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade classrooms
  

This engaging and easy-to-follow resource helps students build foundational science knowledge while actively exploring how light behaves in the real world.