DIY shadow theater in kindergarten

Master class “Shadow theater with your own hands”
Author: Oksana Seitievna Seitmedova, teacher, Gymnasium No. 1503 Description of the material: This material will be useful for educators and additional education teachers. Integration of educational areas: cognition, communication, socialization, artistic creativity. Goal: To stimulate children and their initiative in theatrical activities. Objectives: Develop imagination, creative abilities, develop the articulatory apparatus. To form in children a persistent interest in theatrical activities, a desire to participate in a common action, to encourage children to actively interact and communicate, teaches them to be able to communicate with peers and adults in various situations, to develop speech and the ability to actively build dialogue. Develop play behavior, aesthetic feelings, and the ability to be creative in any task.

Shadow theater is an ancient theater.
Since time immemorial, shadow paintings have been shown in India, China, Java and Turkey on the street at night under the light of an oil lamp. For work we will need:

- cardboard box, - colored paper, - glue, - scissors, - figured hole punches, - parchment paper, - outline drawings of the heroes of the fairy tale “Kolobok”.

Carefully cut the edges of the cardboard box, then cut out the bottom of the cardboard box (as in the photo). This gives us the basis for our craft.

After pasting the base with blue paper. Then cut out a rectangle of the desired size from parchment paper and glue it tightly to the inside of the base. Next, we “cut out” the branches and butterflies using figured hole punches, and proceed to decorating the base.

Now let's start making characters. We cut out the outline drawing (since I don’t know how to draw, such drawings help me out). Then we apply the finished drawing to thick black paper, trace it with a simple pencil and cut it out.

Then we roll a roll out of white paper, carefully apply glue to the edge (as in the photo). Next, cut one side evenly with scissors into narrow strips 2-3 cm wide. Apply glue and apply it on the back side to a figure made of thick black paper. The characters are ready! We chose a fairy tale, assigned roles and learned them. We invited guests from the younger group. I invite you to see what we came up with! Shadow theater fairy tale "Kolobok". Thanks to all!

We recommend watching:

Theatrical activities in kindergarten Scenario of a puppet theater in kindergarten Scenario of a theater festival based on Pushkin's fairy tales for older preschoolers Musical-themed fairy tale for older preschoolers with elements of life safety for preschoolers

Basic principle: how it works

The basis of such theater is “playing” with shadows. The performance is created by light sources. The figure or object is illuminated and a shadow appears on the screen. That is why creating such a theater with your own hands will not be difficult.

Black and white representations are not the only option. Scenes can be “painted” in different colors. You will need colored light bulbs or filters that are attached to the light source. For example, for an evening city scene - a dark blue filter, for a morning scene - shades of yellow.

Characters for the theater

Shadow theater varies depending on the characters. There is, for example, finger theater - shadows from hands are used. The fingers are folded to form the desired ones. This kind of theater is good for children - it develops hand motor skills. For such performances, a small “stage” is suitable.

The puppet theater looks bigger. This implies a performance with additional decorations and figures. Stencils can be used to create a shadow theater with your own hands for children. The size of the dolls is approximately 10 cm (height and size can be easily changed due to distance and approach).

The figures are created from cardboard, fixed on wooden skewers or also on cardboard. You can do it differently: cut out paper figures and stick them on cardboard. It is important to coat the material with glue, but not generously, so that the base does not deteriorate.

The dolls need to be dried under pressure, and then additionally coated with a layer of PVA glue on top. A semi-dry brush is required. It is advisable to paint cardboard dolls with black paint - they will be more noticeable.

Shadow theater for children: how to play correctly so that the theater does not become a toy for one time? article

Shadow theater for children: how to play correctly so that the theater does not become a toy for one time?

We live in a wonderful time when there is a large selection of shadow theaters for children on the Internet, in children's stores and bookstores. This is a great gift, impression, joy for a child. Shadow theater is very useful for children!

1. Shadow theater develops a child’s imagination and teaches him to think creatively.

2. Unlike “ready-made” toys, these are silhouettes, but the child completes the drawings and comes up with elements in his head that are not shown, and such a thought process is very useful. Shadow theater encourages the child to engage in this thought process.

3. Shadow theater develops a child’s speech. Unlike a “ready-made” toy and due to the special atmosphere of theater and performance, shadow theater implies that the child will stage the play and speak out loud on behalf of the characters, rather than silently walking Spider-Man around the bedside table. It is important to be with the child at this moment, to be his spectator. Let him not be shy to invent and tell a story. Support your child's story with admiration and questions.

4. Shadow theater calms kids before bed, because the play takes place in the dark and at a calm tempo rhythm. This is not a game of toy soldiers.

5. Shadow theater instills in a child the idea that you can create with your own hands whatever you want, any toy, and not just go and buy it. The child develops an interest in crafts, homemade items, creativity and creation.

A shadow theater is easy to make, but it will bring much more pleasure than any purchased, bulky and expensive toy.

6. Shadow theater helps to overcome children's fear of the dark, since the associative series of “monster under the bed” and “scary creatures in the darkness of the room” is overlapped by an association with the solemnity of the performance, a miracle in the dark.

Is your child afraid of the dark? Play shadow theater with him and the fear will gradually disappear due to a change in associations. In the photo, my mother and my niece are putting on a shadow play.

7. Shadow theater creates family traditions and warm relationships with parents. Of course, provided that you are participating in the child’s performance, and not sitting on your smartphone in front of the TV on in a room with the lights on, while your child in the corner is trying to understand why he needs to play cardboard on a stick. Shadow theater is like a board game, it looks like some kind of cardboard and pieces of paper, but if you master it, there is a whole world inside and a lot of impressions and experiences.

The last point is where problems most often arise. Parents buy their child a beautiful shadow theater, the child is happy, the parents try to play it once, play for 15-20 minutes, then maybe a second time, and then the theater goes to lie among the toys and no one takes it again. It is difficult for a parent who comes from work as an accountant or lawyer to voice a paper cat after a hard day at work. He is embarrassed to do this in front of the child, feels awkward, like maybe I’m talking some kind of nonsense in front of my child. And how do you come up with a plot? Stage the same fairy tale? But it’s boring for a child to play shadow theater alone, and a brother or sister may be too small/“big” for this. As a result, a shadow theater most often becomes a one-time purchase. Almost no one buys any second type of shadow theater or collects a collection of different figures. Let's play and that's enough.

But the truth is that a shadow theater can serve a child for many years and can become a frequently used and even favorite toy. Shadow theater can be an effective tool for child development. And parents will not be upset that they spent a thousand rubles, and the child only played once. How to do it? How to play shadow theater correctly?

Shadow theater requires a special approach and preparation, just like, for example, board games. It looks like paper and cardboard, but inside there is a whole world. Prepare for the shadow play correctly and your child will play shadow theater more than once.

90% of the success of this toy is the atmosphere. Create an atmosphere!

1. Turn off the lights. Fully. When playing shadow theater, there should be one light source in the room - either a regular flashlight or a smartphone flashlight.

2. It is better to buy an ordinary powerful flashlight for the shadow theater, so that the phone screen with notifications and time does not distract anyone from the game and performance. Or put on airplane mode during the game, otherwise you will interrupt the performance with “you have to answer” or “this is for work.” But a regular flashlight is the best solution. Don't take the cheapest and smallest ones, they give off weak light. Do not buy from an online store, where you will not be able to check what kind of light it actually produces. Go to a hardware store or hardware store. Stock up on batteries. Give your child his own flashlight, he will be very happy. Using a lantern will add atmosphere to the game. You can also use a flexible table lamp where you can direct the beam of light. The option is excellent, but make sure that the child does not touch the wire, does not get burned, and that it is not too heavy.

3. Turn off the TV, stop intimate conversations at the table, remove family members with their faces sanctified by their smartphones from the dark room to another room, and best of all, let them be spectators. When playing shadow theater, there should be one focal point in the dark room - the theater itself. It will not be possible to play shadow theater if there is a performance in one corner of the room, and adults “communicate” in the other. When playing shadow theater, everything should be like in a real theater: the lights go out, the phones turn off, the audience falls silent, and outsiders, out of admiration for the shadows or inventing the plot of the theme, watch the performance and participate in it.

The effectiveness of shadow theater is atmosphere, atmosphere and atmosphere again.

4. Spectators and participants are very important for shadow theater. You can sit down mom, dad, brothers, sisters, grandparents, so they can watch the child put on a fairy tale. The best option is active participation, playing as a character, but not everyone is always ready to do this. Make shadow play a family tradition. Play at least once a week with a fully created atmosphere and spectators, and the child will have a lot of fun. Several adults or siblings can support the child by also participating in the play, playing characters and showing shadows with him. Don’t immediately put the child in a position where he plays himself in front of the audience; he will come to this on his own later and show everyone the finished performance.

Be sure to invite the audience. Dads, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, as a last resort, you can put the child’s favorite toys on chairs and show them the performance. The child will also be very happy about this.

5.Plot. There are a lot of options here.

a) You can put the plot of the book itself. A link to it or text is usually included in the box with the theater. If not, then searching the Internet will help you.

b) You can play the performance using an audio recording. It is also often included in the theater kit, often as a link. If not, then you can find and turn on the audiobook of the fairy tale through contact or YouTube. Don’t forget to stop recording the first showings, otherwise it may be difficult for you and your child to immediately keep up with the plot. Appoint someone to be the sound engineer.

c) You can come up with new plots and fairy tales with existing characters. Do it impromptu, or compose it in advance and then play it. Don't limit your imagination.

d) Invite your child to cut out his characters or scenery and come up with new stories. You can read about this below in a separate section. This could be anything from superheroes to dragons and dinosaurs. Let your child collect his own collection of shadow puppets and learn how to make them.

6.Process. You can set a task for your child in the morning and show you a performance in the evening. Give him a fairy tale, theater for rehearsals and let him learn responsibility and prepare events. You can also do this all together with your child and even extend the game over a week. We’ve been preparing the play since Monday, and on Saturday my grandparents will come and we’ll show it to them together. You will be surprised at how responsibly your child will approach this task. Surely such “movements” are really more interesting than leaving a child alone with cars or dolls?

7.Use background classical music. It will create a solemn magical atmosphere for the game. You can find a huge number of playlists of “children’s” classical music on the Internet. Play it in the background at a volume below average. This is not a mandatory item, try both the option with silence and with music, and choose the one you like best.

I am for imagination and for creating your own unique theater, where you need to come up with your own characters, write your own story, and then play it! This is also beneficial for parents, since they do not need to buy a shadow theater. If you and your child learn to do it yourself, then you will not need to buy any theater books.

You can make a shadow theater like this.

You will only need:

Pencils
Paper (print from the Internet or draw a stencil of the future doll with a pencil)
Scissors
Cardboard (put the stencil on the cardboard and cut out a thick doll using the stencil with scissors)
Sushi sticks or juice straws (To attach the doll to them. Sticks are sold in packs at Ozone)
Scotch tape (attach the dolls to the stick on the back side)
Flashlight, lamp or phone (light source)
White cloth or cooking paper (white parchment). If you don’t want to reflect the shadow on the wall, but make the theater “box” itself with a screen. where the dolls with the light source will be on one side of the paper, and the audience on the other.
The basis for the 8th point, where the fabric or paper is attached. Can be made from a box or crate. You can not cut anything, run a fishing line between the backs of two chairs and hang a white thin fabric on it. Just cover the lower space from light so that it is convenient for the artists to play with dolls and not be visible.

If you want to stage a particular special performance, for example, based on the Moomins or with dinosaurs, then you can find ready-made character stencils on the Internet, including searching in English keywords using the word “stencil” (stencil). All you have to do is print the stencil on a printer, cut it out, transfer it to cardboard and attach it to a stick with tape. And the dolls are ready!

Such a miracle happens if you cut out dolls for a shadow theater yourself.

I want to share with you a selection of interesting purchased shadow theaters and tell you how to use them.

First love and children's favorite “Night Tale” by Beatrice Coron! There are many windows in which interesting events take place, there are circus performers, a house with animals, and a flower shop. So curious, it’s like peeking through different windows! Fantasies will not stop, you can endlessly come up with stories! In paper pictures, as in life, everything is interconnected!

Cover of the book "Night Tale" by Beatrice Coron.

The second find is a series of wonderful books, here you can find your favorite fairy tales! The collection is very large! You can voice the fairy tale yourself or offer to do it with your child. Turn on the audiobook and use a flashlight! Why not? I chose my favorites “Thumbelina” and “Puss in Boots”.

Take your children to this show.

Shadow theater is a wonderful toy and educational activity for a child. An atmosphere and comfort that will carry with the child throughout childhood and will be remembered with warmth in adulthood. Buy your child a shadow play, make your own shadow play with your child, and use my article to get the most out of your new shadow play!

Stages of creating a shadow theater

Making a shadow theater for children with your own hands combines two stages: preparing the stage and creating characters. The approximate time that needs to be spent is about 30-40 minutes. But if you start decorating and creating puppet characters, it will take a little more time.

For the theater to “work”, you will need:

Choose a suitable light source.
Make a screen out of a sheet, whatman paper or white paper.
Take care of the frame (made of cardboard or an artistic stretcher).
Correctly position the light source, screen and characters.

Shadow theater as a means of developing children's creative abilities