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Classroom activity Grade 1 Art & Music

Kettlewell Row Shadow Puppets: From the Tank to the Tap

A grade 1 art activity in which students cut black paper silhouettes of a tank, pipes, and a tap, then stage a shadow show that retells how water reaches a cup.

Objectives

  1. Students will cut a black paper silhouette that reads clearly as one water part.
  2. Students will order five puppets to show how water reaches a tap.
  3. Students will write and read aloud a narration that uses the words first, next, then, and last.

Vocabulary

Key words: silhouette, shadow, puppet, tank, tap

Teacher overview

Kettlewell Row is a fictional street whose water arrives from a tank on the hill above it, travels through a big pipe under the road, moves into a small pipe at each house, and comes out at the kitchen tap. Groups of four students cut five black paper silhouettes for those parts and stage a short shadow show in front of a lamp, moving each puppet into the light in order while one student reads the narration the group has written. The technique teaches silhouette directly, because a shadow keeps only the outline of a shape, so a puppet whose edges are vague reads as a blob on the wall and the group has to recut it. Many students expect a puppet held closer to the lamp to make a smaller shadow, on the reasoning that the puppet itself looks smaller from farther away, and a quick demonstration sliding one puppet toward and away from the light settles the question before the groups build.

Activity Directions

  1. Set up (5 min, before students arrive). Place the lamp on a low table about an arm's length from a white wall or hung sheet, and clear a narrow lane between them where puppets can be held. Cut black paper into half sheets so no group wastes time trimming full sheets. Use a lamp that stays cool, such as an LED, tape the cord out of the lane, and let only an adult move the lamp.
  2. Show the path (7 min). Tell the class the Kettlewell Row story once with your own hand as the puppet: the tank on the hill, the big pipe under the road, the small pipe into the house, the tap, and the cup. Have the class repeat the five parts in order with you.
  3. Test the light (5 min). Hold one paper shape near the lamp and then near the wall so the class watches the shadow grow and shrink. Ask which position made the bigger shadow and confirm the answer with a second pass.
  4. Cut the puppets (15 min). Give each group of four the handout and black paper. Each group cuts five puppets: tank, big pipe, small pipe, tap, and cup. Tape a craft stick to the back of each. Remind groups to cut simple bold outlines, because thin details disappear in shadow.
  5. Rehearse in order (8 min). Groups lay their five puppets left to right in the order water travels, then write their narration on a sentence strip as four sentences beginning with first, next, then, and last, ending with the cup. Groups practice once with one narrator reading the strip while the others move the puppets into the light.
  6. Perform (7 min). Each group performs its show for the class, about one minute per group. The audience holds up a thumb when they hear the word last.
  7. Debrief (3 min). Ask two questions and call on at least four students: which puppet was hardest to recognize as a shadow and why, and what would happen to the tap if the big pipe puppet were taken out of the show.
Kettlewell Row Shadow Puppets: From the Tank to the Tap — Grade 1 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Your group makes five shadow puppets: the tank, the big pipe, the small pipe, the tap, and the cup. Water starts in the tank and ends in the cup.

  1. Which puppet comes first in your show?
  2. Which puppet comes last in your show?
  3. Which puppet goes between the big pipe and the tap?
  4. You start your show with a time word. Which word starts a story: first or last?
  5. Hold your tank puppet in the light. Is the shadow the same shape as the puppet?
  6. Cut a small hole in your cup puppet. Does light come through the hole?
  7. Which paper makes a darker shadow: black paper or white paper?
  8. Move a puppet closer to the lamp without touching it. Does the shadow get bigger or smaller?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: The tank. The water starts up in the tank on the hill before it moves anywhere else.
  2. Answer: The cup. The cup is the end of the trip, where a person actually gets the water.
  3. Answer: The small pipe. The big pipe under the road feeds the small pipe, and the small pipe feeds the tap.
  4. Answer: First. The word first tells the audience that this is the beginning of the show.
  5. Answer: Yes. A shadow keeps the outline of the puppet, which is why a clear cut edge matters more than any detail drawn on the paper.
  6. Answer: Yes. Light passes through the hole and makes a bright spot inside the dark shape.
  7. Answer: Black paper. Thin white paper lets some light glow through, while black paper blocks nearly all of it, so the black shadow is the darkest.
  8. Answer: Bigger. Moving the puppet toward the lamp blocks more of the spreading light, so the shadow on the wall grows.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students precut puppet outlines on black paper with a heavy white line to follow, and have them cut only the tank and the cup while a partner cuts the pipes. Number the backs of the five puppets one through five so the order is available while they rehearse.

Extension

Ask these students to add a sixth puppet of their own for a part of the trip nobody made, such as a valve or a meter, decide where it belongs in the order, and rewrite the narration so the new puppet has its own sentence with a time word.

ELL supports

Post the five part names with a picture beside each, and rehearse the four time words as a class chant with hand motions before groups practice. Allow a student to narrate by holding up word cards in order rather than speaking, and let group members answer items 1 through 3 by pointing.

Extensions

Photograph each group's shadow show and print the frames so the class can put the five images back in order as a pocket-chart sequencing task the next day. The same puppets can be used to retell the trip backward, from the cup to the tank, which gives students a second pass at the order.