Hand shadow example from the 19th century book Hand Shadows To Be Thrown Upon The Wall.

Hand shadows are one of the most basic types of puppets (I remember making them as a child on my bedroom wall before falling asleep at night). All you need is your hand, a light source and a little manual dexterity. If you want some great ideas for making hand shadows, a public domain book on hand shadows from the 19th century called Hand Shadows To Be Thrown Upon The Wall is available as a free download from Project Gutenberg.

What could you do with hand shadows? Maybe this video will give you some ideas.