Do-it-yourself shadow theater at school. Do-it-yourself shadow theater for children stencils

Shadow theater is an art that originated somewhere in the ancient civilizations of India and China more than 1700 years ago. The legend tells that the gods themselves, walking on the Earth, saw pretty dolls in the window of the workshop and decided to play with them. The figures, as if alive, spun in a dance, fluttered like moths, casting bizarre shadows.

This magical dance was secretly spied on by the master. He really wanted to repeat the amazing dance. And then he attached barely noticeable threads to the pupae and gave them a new life.

Let's fast forward to that distant time and arrange a fabulous performance filled with shadow and light, goodness and magic.

You will need:

  • cardboard box,
  • white parchment,
  • black cardboard,
  • markers,
  • scissors, stationery knife,
  • adhesive tape,
  • hot glue,
  • barbecue sticks,
  • desk lamp.

First, let's create a scene. It can be made in the form of a window, a castle, a fabulous tent and even a detached house. It all depends on the size of the box and your imagination.

Let's use the simplest option. Let's make a stage for the performance in the form of a window.

1. Cut out the bottom of the box and glue it with parchment. Secure the edges of the parchment with duct tape.

2. Make shutters from the rest of the box. Draw with markers.

Great! Half done!

And here's another version of the screen:

Well, now, so that our stage is not empty, fill it with bright characters. And, of course, I'm not talking about color (dolls can be made black). The silhouette of each hero should reflect his characteristic features of appearance and character.

3. Cut out cardboard figures of animals, trees, houses, your favorite cartoon characters.

4. Glue with hot glue to a barbecue stick.

5. Illuminate the box with a table lamp, and you can play.

More characters - more amazing stories!

Here's what it looks like from the back:

Now the classical shadow theater is threatened with extinction. But in the 2000s, a new direction arose in this mysterious art. Instead of puppets, dancers create incredible performances on stage, captivating the audience with the flexibility of bodies, the play of light and shadow.

For better mental and speech development of preschool children and primary school students, it is advisable to create a do-it-yourself shadow theater for several people. Such an interesting technique is suitable for both individual and collective events. Therefore, parents and teachers are advised to carefully study the manual and you can get to work.

Tools and materials for creating shadow theater

To make a shadow theater at home with your own hands, you do not need any expensive tools and materials. Everything you need is probably in every apartment or in the country.

So, for work you will need:

From a pedagogical point of view, such theatrical activity forms the child's ability to better feel the aesthetics, and also stimulates the development of fantasy and positively affects interaction in society. In addition, children awaken interest in the rest, for example, in drawing.

Preparatory part

Most often, teachers use the following types of shadow theaters: tabletop, bibabo, finger, mask, puppet, book and planar like magnetic boards and flannelgraphs. A complex but interesting product works with a table lamp or a headlamp, as well as a white screen.

Do-it-yourself shadow theater for children using a stencil do it this way:

Advice! Workpieces may bend. Therefore, it is recommended to use thick paper or laminate them.

After cutting out the figures for the shadow theater for children with their own hands according to the template and laminating them, the moving elements of the products are made and the fixing sticks are prepared. How are limbs fixed?

After making silhouette figures, you need to check them in practice. Enough to play with them. If in this process some parts are unstable, then they will have to be re-fixed.

Creation of scenery

After the main work, a system for attaching to the screen is made, and all the figures are mounted in their places. The process of making decorative details for the shadow theater at home looks like that:


It remains to make the right lighting. Usually puppeteers use a lantern, which is set so that it shines directly on the canvas. You can make it easier by using head-mounted devices. They are easy to find and can be found at any hardware store. For more effect it is advisable to choose models with a swivel mechanism, because they allow you to set the appropriate angle of illumination. The advantage of such a shadow theater is that the performance can be watched both at night and during the day, while the visibility of objects will not deteriorate.

After the construction of the shadow structure, the children need to help organize the event, practice and arrange a spectacle for friends and neighbors. After several such shows, they will be able to do all this without the participation of adults. So feel free to do the shadow theater with your own hands and train the children.

There are many options for interesting leisure activities that you can organize for the kids on their own. Of course, the most interesting are in which the little ones can take a direct part. These fun options include shadow theater for children, which you can do yourself at home at no extra cost.

How to surprise a baby with a shadow?

The simplest option for playing with a child is to show shadows from the hands on the wall, with which you can depict various objects, animals or people. How to make such a shadow theater with your own hands at home - various manuals on the art of creating an image will help you sort out this issue. For children, do-it-yourself shadow theater templates are simple figures, examples of which are presented below:

You can make shadow shapes with your hands both on the wall and on a small screen. To do this, you will need to make a rectangle out of the boards and pull a translucent light fabric without a pattern over it. It is recommended to fix it with buttons or a furniture stapler. After that, the performance can begin: the screen is placed on the surface of the table or a specially prepared stand, the bottom is covered with a thick cloth, the lamp is installed behind the actors, and the light is directed to the screen. To make it more interesting for the baby, you can add various decorations and dolls to the images of the figures.

Shadow puppet theater

In order to make a shadow theater with characters at home with your own hands, you will need a simple set of stationery. It includes: thick cardboard, glue, scissors, thin light sticks. To begin with, it is proposed to use puppets that do not move in productions. This will make it easier to learn this subtle skill, and it will take a few hours to create characters. Figures for the shadow theater are made by hand using templates with images. You can draw them yourself, or you can use ready-made ones. Then they are transferred to paper, cut out and assembled with glue or a stapler. Depending on what role the doll has, it can be glued to the stick both from the side and from below.

Making a shadow theater with your own hands out of paper is not troublesome, but very exciting. The kids will be happy to help make dolls, and then put on everyone's favorite fairy tales, and the spectators who came to visit will discuss this spectacle for a long time.

If your children love to listen to fairy tales and play mini-performances in front of you, reading them by roles, give them a magical gift - a home theater of shadows. With your own hands you will create a miracle. The design will help the children to get acquainted with this art in a fun way. Shadow theater contributes to the development of speech activity and fantasy in children. It will be an excellent teaching aid for kindergarten students or children of primary school age.

An easy way to make a shadow theater with your own hands

The design can be easily built from improvised materials. For work you will need:

  • black cardboard;
  • cereal box;
  • ordinary tape;
  • double sided tape;
  • glue;
  • scissors.

Take a box and cut two windows on both sides of it. There should be 2 cm wide frames around the windows.

From black cardboard, also cut out the figures of trees, the silhouette of clouds, the sun, birds. Now you need a sheet of white paper. Stick it all on him. Place the leaf in a cereal box. Fix it with glue. In its lower end part, make a slot 1 cm wide. It should be the entire length of the box. There will be paper actors.

Now you need to fix the structure. Attach the shadow theater for children with double-sided tape to the edge of the table or stool. The main thing is that there is enough space left for the leaders in the back. Place a table lamp at the back, light it up and invite the audience.

You can take a much larger box and do the same with it. In order for the design to have a neater appearance, it can be painted with gouache or acrylic paints. Sew backstage for her. Shadow theater for children can be used both at home in individual lessons and in group classes.

figurines

Draw the outlines of the actors and scenery on the back of the black cardstock. Cut them out. Glue the ends of wooden skewers to them. Resist the temptation to color your shadow puppets. The black color gives contrast on the screen, and the figures are quite noticeable. Experiment with details, for example, butterfly wings can be cut out of a colored plastic folder.

The limbs of the characters can be made movable. To do this, attach a thin soft wire to your legs and arms and move them during the performance. Shadow theater stencils can be purchased at the store or you can draw the figures yourself.

For the presentation to be successful, you need to follow some rules:

  • To create clear shadows, the light from the lamp should fall directly. Do not place the light source very close. The optimal distance is 2-3 meters from the wall.
  • Start playing with simple productions. Two or three characters are enough to start.
  • Remember: the theater screen must be between the audience and the light source. Be careful: do not forget that the lamp tends to heat up. The figurines should be placed between the light source and the screen.
  • The size of the figures during the presentation depends on how far or close they are from the screen. To increase the character's size, move it further away; to zoom out, move closer.

Shadow theater for professionals

Having made a shadow theater with your own hands and having trained in small productions, I want to complicate the task. To do this, you can increase the number of actors. Sometimes children ask the question: “How to make a shadow theater in color?” To do this, use colored light bulbs. For example, for evening scenes - blue, for morning scenes - red, as at dawn. For the production, you can also consider musical accompaniment.

Script writing and pre-production rehearsals

The first stage is over: you have created a shadow theater with your own hands. Now you need to choose a repertoire. Choose fairy tales for performances according to the age of the children. The children like to remake the good old fairy tales in a new way. You can change heroes, add new characters. For example, from the fairy tale "Turnip" you can make a New Year's story. For example, instead of a vegetable, forest dwellers planted a Christmas tree. Couldn't pull it out. Decorated and began to celebrate the New Year.

If you want to show the performance to friends or grandparents, then you should rehearse it several times in advance. Roles need to be learned by heart, since it will be difficult to read from a piece of paper in the dark. If the guys like the game, then expand it by making a real screen, programs, tickets. Have an intermission with real snacks.

Under the shadow theater for children is usually understood not only the theater with puppets, but also the images of the shadows of animals with the help of hands. Parents can impress their child with animated pictures on the simplest wall.

History of shadow theater

Shadow theater is an art that originated many centuries ago. The richest and most eminent were fond of him, because the puppets were made by hand from fine, well-dressed camel skin. Openwork dolls, animals and birds, painted by masters in all colors of the rainbow, were expensive.

And only in the 17th century, the French realized that the mystery of the shadow theater, depicting unprecedented figures with their own hands, especially captures children, so this art has spread in just a couple of years in the form of a real role-playing game.

Do-it-yourself animal shadows

Organizing a shadow theater at home is as easy as shelling pears! There is nothing complicated in the shadows of animals, most often just two hands are enough to see a bunny, a dog or a bird.

So, how to make shadows with your own hands?

  1. You will need a light wall or any large object hung with a white sheet;
  2. Sunlight or light from a bright lamp should shine directly on the wall, and not from the side;
  3. Approach the wall in such a way that your own shadow does not fall directly on the wall;
  4. Fold your arms as shown in any of the drawings.

Do-it-yourself animal shadows can also be revived! Wiggle your fingers and your bunny will fold its ears and your bird will fly. Teach your child to draw the shadows of animals, this will develop the baby's motor skills and his spatial thinking.


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