In this post I’m going to give you a collection of playful learning activity ideas using colour, light, shadows and reflection with children. I’m also going to share a selection of possible learning outcomes and opportunities available to children when educators and parents provide play based activities and experiences in this early learning area

As educators and adults we tend to see colour, light, shadow and reflection as everyday basic concepts we often take for granted. But for children, the playful learning activities we use to introduce light can turn a simple concept into an amazing one!

You’ll find lots of ideas and inspiration throughout this post to help you plan your own amazing light, colour, shadow and reflection experiences. Ready to explore? Let’s do this!

How to encourage learning with colour, light, shadow and reflection...

What can children discover when they explore, investigate and play with LIGHT?

When there is no light it is dark and we can’t see.
A way to ignite imagination and storytelling.
Light is made up of lots of colours
Introducing different open ended materials and elements to experiment with light encourages children to think critically, solve problems and direct their own active learning.
A way to explore and play using the senses, calm the sensory system depending on light used, engage attention or prompt movements.
If light travels in a straight line or is able to go ‘through’ things.
The creation and investigation of patterns, shapes, colour, opacity and colour mixing by using provided materials in different ways. How can things appear to change colour with the addition of light sources?
Extend vocabulary and the capacity to describe or reflect on what they see.
Different ways we can use to block light.
Natural (e.g sun and stars) and man made sources of light (e.g torches, candles, light bulbs). What is our main source of light?
Different ways that light helps technology to work. Invite older children to investigate simple projects like how laser beams help our DVD machine play their favourite movie or how the NBN and fibre optic cables help us communicate over the internet.
How natural light or artificial light helps our flowers and vegetables to grow.

In this post I give educators a huge collection of playful learning activity ideas with colour, light, shadows and reflection - includes learning outcomes!

The Very Lonely Firefly - Eric Carle
You are Light - Aaron Becker
Light Waves - David A Adler
What is Light - Markette Sheppard

How can early childhood educators invite playful learning with LIGHT?

Set up light panels, boxes or overhead projectors in a ‘cave’ or darker area of the room for self exploration.
Introduce a basket of darker coloured fabrics for children to hang over windows, tables etc and block light.
Hang cellophane streamers or old DVD disks from tree branches and watch the rainbows form in the sun.
Make colourful collages on the light panel or overhead projector using coloured cellophane, glass beads, coloured shape pieces etc
Add torches of different sizes and strength to the shelves for children to experiment with.
Put together some ‘explorer’ baskets or boxes with materials and objects that are transparent. Encourage children to look at each other through the containers or material pieces...can you see me?
Introduce different types of light used throughout your learning environment - try lamps instead of harsh overhead lighting, soft twinkly party/string lights, downlights, lampshades or material draped over lighting in certain areas to soften the space.
Try to introduce new words for older children to describe light as they experiment and take part in activities...try reflection, refraction, ray, and prism.
Make your own lightbox together using recycled or inexpensive materials.
Add books to your reading corner that stimulate discussions about light - see some examples further below to get you started.
Go outside and draw the natural sources of light you can find as a group (e.g sun) then find some man made sources like torches. How is the light different?

We’ve found more simple activities for you to try below - just click on the links to visit each one for more details about how to play!

DIY Kaleidoscope - Babble Dabble Do
Butterfly Suncatcher - Crafts On Sea
Exploring with the Light Table - Racheous

Exploring light with magnatiles - The Simple Parent
Make your own Lightbox - Teach Beside Me

What can children discover when they explore, investigate and play with COLOUR?

How to change colours by mixing or placing other objects on top of each other.
Why do some objects or materials that are already coloured not appear colourful on a projected image?
As a way to sort and classify objects and materials.
The principles of cause and effect as they experiment with colour.
How light influences colour in different ways.
To differentiate between different colours.
Make observations about similarities and differences.
Coloured lights and paints can mix to form other colours.
How to use coloured light in a creative way.
How to make predictions and test theories using critical thinking and problem solving skills.
To recognise and name colours.
How to describe and categorise the world around us using language and creative thinking skills.

Mouse Paint - Ellen Walsh
Mix it Up - Hervé Tullet
A Color of His Own - Leo Lionni
Color Dance - Ann Jonas

How can early childhood educators invite playful learning with COLOUR?

Collect some glass jars or see through containers and fill with coloured water. Place on a white surface near a window that gets the sun coming through to create colourful patterns and reflections.
Display transparent jars and tubs with craft materials or manipulatives of different colours and shades.
Set up provocations that give children the opportunity to mix colours using different mediums like playdough, clay, paint, crayons.
Make binoculars using cardboard rolls taped together and coloured cellophane added over one end. Can you see through the end? What colour is the grass now?
Help children investigate the differences between transparent, translucent and opaque as they tape or stick different types of coloured paper to windows or clear easels.
Include some black and white paint to art experiences so children can experiment and mix to lighten or darken colours.
Create patterns using different coloured blocks, cars or duplo...green, green,yellow, red, green.
Point out and name colours when outdoors - flowers, vegetables, grass, balls, kites, pets etc.
Add some edicol paint dye powder to a few buckets then provide jugs and water for children to fill and mix into their bucket to create water colours.
Add colour to messy play whenever you can!
Sing songs and play games based on exploring and sorting colour.
Put together sensory bins using single colour themed materials or include all colours of the rainbow.

There are so many playful, everyday ways to learn with colour - you would be reading all day if I tried to list them all here! If you need more inspiration though make sure to visit the activity ideas we have collected for you below.

Make your own rainbow sensory balls for play!

Learn How to Make Them

Fine Motor Colour Mixing

Enjoy Some Creative Fine Motor Play

Colour Mixing with Paint - Gift of Curiosity
Colour Mixing Water - Fun with Mama
Colour Transfer Experiment - Parenting Chaos

Sensory Sand Art

Try colouring your own sand

Toddler Cooking with Cornflour Paint

Make Your own Homemade Paint

Exloring Colours with Prisms - Buggy and Buddy
Rainbow Exploration - A Little Pinch of Perfect

We’re going on a Goopy Bear Hunt…..Fine Motor Sensory Fun!

Try This Sensory Play

What can children discover when they explore, investigate and play with REFLECTION?

Reflection occurs when light meets an object surface and travels to our eyes so we can see around us.
Everyday objects like a table or ball reflect an image of itself back to us.
A curiosity about self image and others they can see reflected in a mirror.
How to manipulate reflections and images.
To view objects with a 3D perspective and play with them in a different way.
Mirrors reflect our image back to us (older children can investigate further about why the image is reversed!).
Surfaces as well as objects can reflect images too if they are shiny, smooth or metallic.
How to make predictions and test theories using critical thinking and problem solving skills.
How to use coloured light in a creative way.
How to make predictions and test theories using critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Mirrors can be used to reflect light into a darker space.
Mirrors can help to show us the movements we make and body parts we use from different perspectives and angles.
We can make light bounce off a surface and reflect onto us using a torch.
Not all things can reflect light.
The moon reflects sunlight and that’s why we can see it in the sky!

Explore reflection with babies and toddlers when reading the book....

My First I See You by Eric Carle

How can early childhood educators invite playful learning with REFLECTION?

Make a collage together using a range of materials out in the sun to show that some things reflect light and others don’t.
Paint on mirrors using fingers or brushes.
Make up some treasure baskets with various sparkly and shiny materials for baby and toddler to touch and explore.
Provide chalk pens or whiteboard markers to draw on a mirror - try this with horizontal and vertical surfaces.
Add bowls of loose parts for children to arrange on mirror or reflective surfaces.
Lay mirror tiles on the bottom of a shallow water tub so children can see their own reflection as well as the reflection of any of the water play toys they are using.
Set up a mirror behind the sand or water tables/trays/tubs to provide a different perspective to the play.
Hang crystals and prisms by a window or from a tree branch for babies and toddlers to track rainbows as the sun shines through.
Place a selection of coloured foil card sheets/wrapping paper with a bright shiny surface and show children how to move them around under the ceiling lights to cast patterns on a white wall space.
Use old DVD’s or CD’s as a canvas for collage and then hang in the vegetable garden to create reflections that scare the veggie eating birds away like a scarecrow!
Set up an investigation space with shiny surface objects or reflective materials like cd’s, foil wrapping paper, lids, tins (check for sharp edges) with some non reflective materials. Add some torches and encourage children to investigate which objects or surfaces reflect light and which ones don’t.
Look in the mirror and draw your own self portrait!
Arrange 3 small mirror tiles or sticky sheets at an angle to form 2 sides on top of a mirror and provide different materials for children to explore symmetry, shapes, patterns and reflection. Some interesting materials we have used include cotton buds, small coloured puzzle pieces, blocks, coloured gems and sand.
Add hand-held mirrors, old mirror makeup compacts and perspex reflective mirrors to shelves, outdoors, block and dramatic play areas.
Add a few mirrors to your walls to reflect light and open up darker spaces within your environment.
Go on a ‘reflection’ scavenger hunt - look around the house or backyard to find surfaces that reflect.
Ensure babies and toddlers have easy access to reflective open ended materials and low mirrors or mirror sheets/tiles so they can investigate on their own.
Hold a hand held mirror up to a mirror on a wall facing each other to create multiple reflections and promote critical thinking about why this happens.
Use mirrors to help children practice recognising and naming emotions and facial features.

Insert Image

Inviting Imagination into Outdoor Play with Facepainting

Try facepainting outdoor play

Fine Motor Recycling Fun with Foil!

Try This Foil Craft

Adding Mirrors to Provocations - Play at Home Mome
Mirror Play - Happy Toddler Playtime
Reflection Table - Teach Preschool

Make your own Mirror Box - And Next Comes L
Exploring reflections - Buggy and Buddy

What can children discover when they explore, investigate and play with SHADOWS?

We can make shadows when we use an object or materials that we can’t see through (opaque) to block out the light source.
Shadows can change if we move the light to a different position or bring it closer/further from us.
A different way to help them tell stories, engage in imaginative play and get creative.
When exploring shadows outside children can see that a shadow’s shape, size, and position can change over the day as the sun moves.
How to manipulate different materials to create new results.
When recording these results children learn to describe, measure and compare the shapes and sizes of shadows.
How light can create different sizes and shapes of shadows.
Adding new words and descriptive narratives to their vocabulary and conversations.
There can be shadows both indoors and outdoors.
That if there is a light source directed at an object it will create a shadow.
How to experiment with positioning their body to create different shadows.

Exploring Colour & Texture Outdoors with Window Blocks!

Explore Colour with Blocks

Mouse Paint - Ellen Walsh
Mix it Up - Hervé Tullet
A Color of His Own - Leo Lionni
Color Dance - Ann Jonas

How can early childhood educators invite playful learning with SHADOWS?

Set up an overhead projector with various open ended materials for children to project light onto the wall and create their own shadows and patterns. Natural materials like leaves, twigs, pine cones,seed pods, feathers etc make very interesting shadows!
Trace shadows of children outside with chalk on the pavement and revisit throughout the day to see the changes occurring. Try showing the children how to draw around the shadow of their favourite objects on paper or cement.
Give children access to a digital camera to take photos of each other’s shadows. Print and turn into a matching game - whose shadow is that?
Turn off the main overhead light and encourage children to make shadows using torches or LED candles.
Build a tower of blocks or similar outside with the sun positioned behind it - use pebbles, smaller blocks or anything you have on hand for the children to ‘fill in ‘ the shadow on the ground. Come back at different times to explore what happens as the sun moves.
Provide access to whiteboard erasable pens for children to draw on some transparency paper or stiff plastic then add to the overhead projector so they can see their masterpieces displayed up on the wall!
Use some smaller objects like puzzle pieces, gems or leaves on the light table and trace around the shapes with whiteboard markers.
Put some music on and dance in front of a light source to make dancing shadows!
Show children how to experiment with shadow size by moving a toy closer to the light then further away. When does it get bigger? When does it get smaller?
Make a puppet show using different cars, animals, stuffed toys, dolls and other favourites in front of a light source like a lamp or torch.

Lego Shadows - Little Bins for Little Hands
How to Make Shadows - Preschool STEAM

Animal Shadow Drawing - Emma Owl
DIY Shadow Puppets - Where Imagination Grows
Chalk Drawing of Own Shadow - Raising Dragons

Are you ready to introduce ‘light’ to your program and share your own playful learning activity ideas using colour, light, shadows and reflection with your children?

Have you already had fun together learning about light through play in different ways? Share your ideas with us below or pop over to our Facebook Community here and share a photo with us!

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A Little About Me

Jodie Clarke is an early childhood professional supporting educators who want and need to stay passionate about the work they do! She has 30 years hands-on experience in the early childhood and human services sectors across many different roles.

Jodie is mum to 3 in Australia and has already helped thousands of educators with their work through her popular blog posts, activity ideas, online training and e-books.