Halloween Shadow Puppets

Shadow puppets aren’t just for sunny days, they’re great fun indoors with a torch in winter too. These Halloween shadow puppets would be great for a Halloween Party activity 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

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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.

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, pumpkin etc outline on a piece of card and carefully cut it out.

If you want to add extra colour, cut out shapes on 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

Remember – Shadow Facts

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