The room is twilight, only a table lamp shines brightly. When you raise your hands, shadows appear on the wall. And if you fold your hands into bizarre shapes or move your fingers - the shadows come to life and turn into mysterious figures or animals. This truly fascinating process fascinates not only children but also adults.
Indeed, in order to show children an unforgettable, vivid performance, it is not necessary to go to the theater. You can arrange a shadow theater for children at home. It is with great pleasure that they take part in preparing for the performance - they cut out dolls, make up the stage, come up with characters and scripts, enthusiastically depict figures of magical animals with their pens. All this is not only interesting, but also informative, and also useful. Adults spend time with children, while the guys develop their thinking, splash out their imagination, inner perception of the world.
DIY shadow play for children
The development of fine motor skills is very useful for children, especially small ones. Shadow theater is just that role-playing game that will help this process. Images that are obtained on the wall only with the help of properly installed lighting and their own hands and fingers, lead children in admiration. After all, there is so much new in such a production as a shadow theater for children - an adult can show elementary movements with his own hands, having seen which, the child will be delighted and will surely try to repeat these actions and even create his own. Success, achievements of the baby in copying movements, animals will bring joy not only to him, but to everyone around him.
When the child has mastered the basic basics, it is possible to make the process more interesting and exciting, for example, to put on a whole performance where the main role will be assigned to him and your hands, and the audience can be relatives and friends of the family.
Puppet Shadow Theater
In order to make a shadow theater out of paper with your own hands , there is no need at all to build some bulky equipment. It is enough to take a few electric lamps, thanks to their lighting, the shadows will be bright and clear, and a light sheet for the screen. For lack of a sheet, a plain white wall will do.
The lamps must be installed so that they illuminate the screen well, the rest of the room should be darkened. Spectators invited to the performance should be in the twilight, and direct participants in the show between a well-lit screen and a light source. Now it’s worth turning on the fantasy and the world of shadows will come to life. For realism of what is happening, you can adjust the image size, to increase the characters on the screen, you need to move the dolls away from the wall, and to reduce, on the contrary, zoom in.
Stage Shadow Theater
There is another way to make a shadow play with your own hands for children - a fairy tale, invented by you at the same time, will unfold on a real stage.
But this will require a little more preparation than was necessary for previously voiced methods.
How to make a scene
The dimensions of the screen and side walls are each determined independently. But it is most convenient to play with a screen size of about 50 by 50 cm and side walls - 50 by 30 cm. The resulting box needs to be tightened with paper, a specialized film for patterns is best suited, it is durable and does not shine through.
Pupil silhouettes should be made of cardboard, with all moving parts such as arms, legs and head need to be cut separately. You can fasten the parts together using an ordinary wire, for this you need to make holes in the parts using an awl or a thick needle, draw a wire into them and turn them into a ring on both sides.
A cane 40-50 cm long needs to be attached to the doll’s body, it can be any thin stick. It is necessary to screw a screw into it and fix the body of the cardboard doll.
To make the doll come to life, that is, start moving, you need to use threads. They must be durable, the floss is best suited for this purpose. In the legs and hands, as well as in the cane, fasten loops of pins. Tie the thread to the loops on the legs and arms and stretch it through the eye of the loop on the cane. If you pull it, the limbs of the doll will rise; if you release it, it will lower.
If you tie different colors of the thread to the right and left sides, this will allow you not to get confused when setting. But do not get carried away with a variety of colors, when managing during the action this can be confusing.
For the silhouette to be clear, the doll and the scenery need to be pressed firmly against the screen, the light should be between the screen and the puppeteer.
In fact, to make a shadow play for children with your own hands, you can use the usual large cardboard box, for example, from under the shoes. The main thing is that she stands steadily on the table. Figures can also be any, you can turn on your imagination and imagination, creating fabulous and unusual characters, or you can cut them according to ready-made stencils.
Performance for friends
It will be exciting to hold such an entertaining lesson not only in the family circle, but also with the involvement of friends and their children. In order to arrange a joint shadow theater for children with their own hands, it is better to think through and hand out the scripts and roles in advance. Let each of the main characters independently prepare his own doll at home - this will be even more interesting both for the participant himself and for other children participating in the performance.