How to make a shadow theater for children with their own hands

The room is dim, only the table lamp shines brightly. It's worth raising your hands - and there are shadows on the wall. And if you fold your hands into fancy 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.

After all, in order to show the children an unforgettable, vivid performance, it is not necessary to go to the theater. You can arrange a theater of shadows for children at home. They take part in the preparation for the show with great pleasure - they cut out dolls, master the stage, invent characters and scenarios, with enthusiasm they depict the figures of magic animals with their hands. All this is not only interesting, but also informative, and also useful. Adults spend time with their children, while the children develop their thinking, throw out their imagination, inner perception of the world.

Theater of shadows for children with their own hands

The development of fine motor skills is very useful for children, especially small children. The shadow theater is exactly the role play 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, bring children into admiration. After all, there is so much new in such a production as a shadow theater for children - with their own hands an adult can show elementary movements, after seeing which, the child will be delighted and will certainly try to repeat these actions and even create their own. Successes, achievements of the kid in copying movements, animals will bring joy not only to him, but to all surrounding.

When the child learns the basics, you can make the process more interesting and exciting, for example, put a whole play where the main role will be assigned to him and your hands, and the audience can be loved ones and friends of the family.

Theater of shadows using paper dolls

In order to make the theater of shadows with our own hands made of paper, there is no need to build any cumbersome 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. In the absence of a sheet, a simple white wall is also suitable.

Lamps should be installed so that they illuminate the screen well, the rest of the room should be darkened. Spectators invited to the show should be in the shadows, and the direct participants of the show between a well-lit screen and a light source. Now it is necessary to include imagination - and the world of shadows will come to life. For the realism of the event, you can adjust the size of the image, to increase the characters on the screen you need to push the dolls away from the wall, and to reduce, on the contrary, closer.

Theater of shadows on stage

There is one more way to make a shadow theater with our own hands for children - a fairy tale, invented by you in this case, will unfold on a real stage.
But this requires a little more preparation than was necessary for the previously announced methods.

How to make a scene

The dimensions of the screen and side walls are determined by oneself. But it is most convenient to play with screen sizes of approximately 50 by 50 cm and side walls - 50 by 30 cm. The resulting box needs to be tightened with paper, the specialized film for patterns is best suited, it is sturdy and does not shine through.

Silhouettes of pupae should be made from cardboard, with all moving parts, such as hands, feet and head, cut out separately. To fasten the parts together, you can use ordinary wire, for this you need to make holes in detail with an awl or a thick needle, stretch the wire in them and wrap them in a ring on both sides.

To the body of the doll you need to attach a cane 40-50 cm long, it can be any thin stick. It needs to screw in the screw and fix the body of the cardboard doll.

To make the doll come alive, that is, start moving, you need to use threads. They should be strong, the best for this purpose is a floss. In the legs and hands, as well as in the walking stick, you should fasten the eyelets from the pins. Tie the thread to the hinges on the legs and hands and stretch it through the eye of the loop on the canes. If you pull for it - the limbs of the doll will rise, if you let go - go down.

If you tie different colors of the thread to the right and left, this will not get confused when staging. But do not get carried away by the variety of colors, while running during the action this can be confusing.

To the silhouette was clear, the doll and decorations should be pressed tightly against the screen, the light should be between the screen and the puppeteer.

In fact, to make the theater of shadows for children with their own hands, you can also use an ordinary large cardboard box, for example, from under shoes. The main thing is that it stays steady on the table. Figures can also be any, you can include your imagination and imagination, creating fabulous and unusual characters, and you can cut out on ready-made stencils.

Performance for friends

It will be fascinating to hold such an entertaining lesson not only with the family, but also with the involvement of friends and their children. In order to arrange a joint theater of shadows for children with their own hands, it is better to think in advance and hand out scenarios and roles. Let each of the main characters independently prepare their own doll at home - this will be even more interesting both for the participant himself and for other children taking part in the performance.