Flashlights

Turn the light off

A child found a flashlight and wanted the room dark.

“Turn the light off.”

An adult switched the ceiling light off, and the beam came out sharp against the floor.

They went after it. A foot came down on the spot of light, then a hand reached to grab it, and when it slid away they went with it — into the dark corner, across the floor, up the wall, onto the ceiling.

Then they lay down on their backs and pointed it straight up.

“Catch mine.”

One of them got up with the flashlight held out in front.

“I'm the police.”

An adult held a thin cloth up high above them, and they shone the flashlight up at it and watched.

When the ceiling light came back on:

“That's too bright.”

The beam was still there, even with the big light on.

The paper that looked white

They shone flashlights on drawings they had done, to see them brighter. Light landed on one of them.

“A monster!”

And off they went round the room, running from it.

Then there were sheets of paper that looked white. A flashlight held to one brought colors up out of it.

“If I do it like this it goes purple?”

“This one was yellow.”

They held theirs up against each other's.

“Mine comes out red!

So it isn't scary when night comes

A camper van, built out of a cardboard box and blocks and whatever else was around. Blocks for the wheels, the box for the body of it.

“This is our house.”

“There's a bed and a kitchen too.”

Then, part way in:

“I want a light in the camper van.”

An adult found a small flashlight, and it went inside the van.

“Now it isn't scary when night comes.”

They invited a friend in, and the two of them sat in there together.

“We'll sleep here and go and see the sea in the morning.

The ones they made to get a better shadow

The small lamp was too weak and the shadows hardly showed, so they set about making stronger ones.

A cardboard tube and an LED light, taped together. They covered the tubes with whatever they liked and drew on them.

One child made a handle out of glittery pipe cleaner. After that everybody made a handle.

The front end had tape across it, and they colored that tape in with markers, right round in rainbow. Switched on, a rainbow came out of the end, and they shouted about how pretty it was. They asked for the lights off, because the flashlights were better in the dark, and each one was their own.

One of them worked out what moving it did.

“Look! Like this it gets small, and like this it gets big!”

The handles meant they could hang. An adult cleared a spot on the wall for them, and after playing they hung their own back up.

Look, it shines

A blue flashlight, and balls that glow.

One child shone the flashlight on a ball, then fetched blocks and built something like a house, and put all the balls inside it. An adult shone a light in at them, and after that the child took over the shining.

Another one found the star stickers.

“The star is twinkly.”

An adult peeled a star off and stuck it on a painting from the week before.

“I want to do it.”

Stars went on, and the light went on them, and under the blue the paint gave up colors that hadn't shown before — yellow, orange. Another child came over to hunt for the hidden ones.

One of them had a star on their nose. Held up to the mirror, with the light on it:

“It shines?”

An adult said it was like Rudolph's nose.

“Put the Rudolph song on.”

A winter song went on, and two of them started dancing. Another stuck stars on a nose, a cheek, the top of a head.

“Look at me.”

Handed the flashlight, that one stood at the mirror shining it on their own stickers.

“Hee hee, look at this.”

Then one more came over with stars on their face, and the two of them shone the light on each other, taking turns.

The cards with something hidden in them

Straight after morning snack they went to the light corner and switched the flashlights on, the way they had been doing. A flashlight at a shadow stick puts the shape up on the wall, and they had that part down.

Today there were cards with something on the back of them. A flashlight behind one brought a picture out: a tyrannosaurus, a crocodile, a rabbit. They found what was hiding in each one and made a guessing game of it between them.

A theater made out of blocks

“What does a shadow look like if you shine a light at it?”

“What happens to the shadow if you move the puppet?”

An adult asked, then suggested a shadow theater, and a lot of them wanted in.

They built the theater out of blocks and a board and put a flashlight behind it. Paper puppets went in front of the light, and when the puppets moved the shadows moved. They worked them together and made the story up as they went.

What the room is like with the curtains down

With the blackout curtains down the room went dark, and they took flashlights round it. Everything looked different from usual.

They hid things and hunted for them with the beams. Then an adult hid yogurts.

After that came a disco ball, and the whole room filled with turning bits of light. Music went on, and they shone their flashlights at the ceiling and at the curtains and danced.

Then they sat down and ate the yogurts they had found, and talked it over.

Inside the box where the light was

Colored cellophane laid over a light box, and the box switched on. They came in close to look.

Plain light held them less than colored light did. So an adult colored a round piece of tape in rainbow and let light through a hole in it, and rainbow came out on the wall. They reached up to touch it and laid their hands flat in it.

Then an adult stood a big box on end, made a hole in the top, taped cellophane over the hole and shone a flashlight through. Color spread about inside the box, and they climbed in to be nearer it.

An adult waved the flashlight so the light moved, and they moved too, along with the song.

A lighthouse out of a clear cup

A flashlight, a clear cup and a sheet of colored film made a lighthouse.

“We have to help the boat find its way!”

An adult asked how far the light would reach, and whether the dark places could be lit as well. They followed the light along the wall and across the floor, steering the boats down it.

It is too dark in here

A spaceship, and the space outside it, and they went back and forth between the two.

“It's too dark in here.”

“Shine it and you can see the way!”

When the room lights came on:

“The sun's up!”

“It's bright now, so it's safe.

Found you

The lights went off and the flashlights came on, and they hunted for each other.

“Found you!”

A beam landing on somebody made a shadow of them, and that was funny. They waved a hand and watched the shadow wave.