Last week we looked at how shapes seen in the distance were different to those close up.

This week we explored shape again in the form of a SILHOUETTE: the solid shape of an object or person. The silhouette outline is exactly the outline edge of the object or person.

I introduced the idea of the PROFILE. This is a side view of a person and asked the children to trace with their finger their own profile: by running their finger slowly down from the top of their forehead, over their nose and lips and chin all the way to their neck and shoulder.

We decided to try and create our own silhouettes, but first we discussed what we might need and how we might do this….

We talked about how we see shadows:

We all agreed that we needed a light. But where did we need to stand to create a shadow?

Did we need to stand in front of the light or behind the light?

We thought about it and agreed we needed to stand in front of the light source to create a shadow.

Teacher Dearbhla had organized an overhead projector as a strong light source and the children worked in pairs to stand and have their shadow cast onto paper for their friend to draw around.

The drawn shapes were then cut out and traced onto black paper. So the children had both white and black silhouettes.

Finally I had posted down to the class an envelope with some silhouette shapes of different objects already cut and asked the teacher to give these out to the class.

The new silhouette was used to create a story from the imagination…..