Easy Shadow Puppets for Halloween

Shadow puppets aren’t just for sunny days. They’re great fun indoors with a torch in winter, too. These Halloween shadow puppets are a great simple science and craft activity for a Halloween party or for adding a bit of spooky science fun to your house decorations.

Collage of shadow puppets made for Halloween. One is pumpkin shaped and one bat shaped with yellow cellophane for the eyes

What is a shadow?

Shadows are made when an object blocks light. The object blocking the light must be opaque or translucent for a shadow to form.

Halloween Shadow Puppets

You’ll need

Lolly sticks or craft sticks

Black Card or orange card

Scissors

Cellophane – optional

Double sided tape – optional

Torch

How to make a shadow puppet

We made bat and pumpkin shadow puppets, but you could also make witches’ hats, spiders, ghosts or anything else Halloween themed.

First, draw the bat or pumpkin outline on a piece of card and carefully cut it out.

If you want to add extra colour, cut out shapes in the inside of the shadow puppet and attach cellophane over gaps using double-sided tape.

The puppets are a bit easier to hold if you attach a lolly stick or craft stick handle, but this is completely up to you.

Ask a friend to hold the torch behind the spooky shadow puppet, and you should see the shadow form on the wall.

Try moving the torch further away and closer to the shadow puppet to investigate how the shape and size of the shadow changes.

Bat shadow Puppet made with card and a lolly stick. Image shows the shadow created when a torch is held behind the puppet — Bat Shadow Puppet

Make this activity even easier with my free template!

Remember – Shadow Facts

Transparent materials let light pass through them in straight lines. We can clearly see through transparent materials.

Translucent materials ( like our cellophane ) let some light through but scatter the light in different directions. We cannot easily see through translucent materials.

Opaque materials do not let any light pass through them. We cannot see through opaque materials at all.

More Halloween Science for Kids

We’ve got lots more Halloween science ideas, including making fake blood, a pumpkin lava lamp, witchy potions, an articulated hand candy grabber and lots more!

Don’t forget to share a photo on social media if you try any of my ideas!

If you love all things icky and sticky, my new book might be perfect for you! Gross Science is full of sticky, slimy and gruesome science experiments for kids!