Glow Day in 4th Grade: Academic Fun Under the Black Lights

Every year on Halloween, for the past 5 years or so, I have decided to lean into the idea that the kids are really hyped up and want to have fun.  Instead of just doing random Halloween activities, which some kids might not be able to participate in for one reason or another, I have done a GLOW DAY!   I always keep this as academic and standards-based as possible, while hooking up the black lights!   The end result is always a day the kids remember, while not losing out on any of that precious learning time we are always fighting to fit in.  

At this time of year in 4th grade, we are studying animal adaptations, so bioluminescence was a natural fit. I also wanted to work in some math and give the kids a chance to create something of their own. Here is what our fourth-grade Glow Day looked like!  (if you would like set up and logistics, see this post here about when I did this in 3rd grade...it was the same materials I needed)

To set the stage, and before we turned off any lights, I gave everyone a small glow stick, a plastic NEON detective hat, and a NEON clipboard. Here is a link to the exact ones that I gave my students.  (These are on Amazon, so I do get a small commission if you purchase through this link)  I explained that we were going to be learning about one adaptation that some animals use to survive in the wild called bioluminescence.  We we going to be detectives and figure out.  I got them into groups, set them at their stations, and turned off the lights.

Reading about Bioluminescent Animals

We started the day with eight nonfiction passages about bioluminescent animals. These passages came from a book on bioluminescence I found on EPIC.  I just screenshot the free book so that I had passages for the kids, without having them on the computer.  I backed these on neon cardstock, so they would have a glowing element to them.  

For this activity students read the passages with their glow sticks and used a chart and highlighter (they wrote with the highlighter, as that glows well in the dark and works better than a regular pencil) to take notes about how each animal used bioluminescence to survive in its environment. This connected directly to our fourth-grade NGSS work with animal structures and adaptations. Rather than simply collecting interesting facts about glowing animals, students had to think about what the adaptation did and how it helped the animal survive.

Students worked in groups of three, and each group spent six minutes reading a passage and recording information before moving on to the next one.  I use a lot of movement in my classroom, so instead of having everyone stay in one place, the groups rotated clockwise around the room. This kept everyone moving and gave the kids a chance to explore all eight passages during the activity.  This was a timed activity, and I had the kids moving on to the next station, whether or not they finished completely recording.  Most kids picked up on this after the first one or two rounds, and began working much more quickly and, more importantly, together.  

Creating a Bioluminescent Animal

After reading about real animals, it was time to create something of their own. Students designed a new bioluminescent animal, deciding which parts of its body would glow. They used neon oil pastels and their highlighters to make those parts stand out under the black lights.

I wanted this to be more than an art project, so the idea was for students to use what they had learned from the passages to think about how their animal might use bioluminescence. Would it help the animal find food? Attract a mate? Avoid a predator?

We finished the designs during Glow Day, but the project continued on another day when students used electrical circuits to make parts of their animals actually light up. I'll share that project in a separate post because it deserves its own explanation!

Measuring Angles Under Black Lights

Next, we switched to math. I gave each student a protractor that glowed in the dark, a highlighter, and a regular piece of white paper.

Students used the straight edge of the protractor and their highlighter to create angles on their paper and then measured them with the rounded part of the protractors. The highlighter marks glowed under the black lights, making the white paper part of the fun, too.

It was a simple way to practice measuring angles while keeping the Glow Day theme going. The materials were easy to put together, and the kids were excited to use math tools that were a little different from the ones they normally used.

For students who finished early, I had one more activity ready to go.

Multiplication Practice With Task Cards

Pulling this from my 3rd grade Glow Day, I had some multiplication task cards taped up around the room. These were copied on neon paper so they would glow.  There were five levels of task cards taped up, all copied on five different colors of paper.  This helped to add in a bit of differentiation.  The recording sheet was copied on the same color paper as the cards the kids were looking for.  They walked around the room and solved the problems.  If they finished that level, I gave them another one.   

Here are the task cards and the recording sheet for you.

Silent Reading With Glow Sticks

After lunch, we slowed things down with silent reading. The classroom was still dark with black lights only, and students used glow sticks to provide a little extra light while they read their books.

It was a fun way to end our Glow Day and gave everyone some quiet reading time after a busy day.

I know, ultimately, you just want to know.....was Glow Day worth it?  1,000,000%  What I liked most about our fourth-grade version was that the activities connected to things we were already learning. Students read nonfiction, recorded scientific information, thought about animal adaptations, created their own designs, and practiced measuring angles. We even found time for multiplication practice and independent reading.  

The black lights made ordinary classroom materials feel different, but the learning was still there. That is what made the day work for me.  Plus, it was the perfect way to keep the kids in the fun, festive, Halloween mood, without actually touching Halloween.

If you are thinking about trying a Glow Day in your classroom, you don't need to make every activity complicated. A few changes to your usual materials can turn familiar lessons into something students will remember.

Have you tried Glow Day with your students? I'd love to hear what you did!