I tied a rope to two trees and hung up a white bed sheet. The sun shone through the sheet, so the kids started doing pantomime and shadow puppets with their fingers. This was a completely unexpected activity, since I hung up the sheet for the kids to do a painting. (You can see what they painted here.)
You can also do shadow puppets on a white wall while projecting a bright light toward the wall in a dark room. Slide projectors without a slide in them work especially well. The children combine their fingers into different shapes to make animals and objects. You can even play a game of charades by silently acting out a shadow puppet and trying to get the other people to guess what object you are making. Shadow puppets are great fun!
