Tawan and the Traveling Shadow

On Saturday morning, Tawan set a basket beside the lime tree. When he returned later, the shadow that had touched the basket had moved away. “Who moved the shadow?” he wondered.

Aunt Orn helped Tawan stand a piece of chalk upright in the yard. Every hour, he traced the shadow's tip and placed a pebble there. The shadow grew shorter, then pointed the other way.

At noon, the shadow was shortest. Tawan tried to push his chalk line back, but the shadow would not follow. Looking up, he understood that the sun's path across the sky made the shadow seem to travel.

Tawan and Aunt Orn made a simple sundial from a clay pot and a stick. Instead of words, he used a lunch picture and a watering-can picture to remember which shadow meant each activity.

The next day, clouds hid the sun and the sundial fell quiet, so Tawan checked a clock instead. He smiled. A sundial worked well when sunlight came, and a good answer included what it could not do.

Small questions can grow into knowledge when we observe, test, and revise our ideas.