Lights Out: Light Pollution STEM, STEAM, ELA Activities

LIGHTS OUT: STEM, STEAM, ELA ACTIVITIES

Best Users: Librarians, Educators, Home Learners, Environmental Educators, Young Astronomers
Best Audience: Children Grades 01-06

ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES

Lights Out: Research Cards (STEM)
This activity provides readers with six Research Cards to explore the effect of light pollution on the animals featured in the book and on humans. There is a brief paragraph to get readers started and a place for their own questions and research. Are they curious about other animals? The activity also provides a blank Research Card to record those explorations.

Lights Out to See Everything (Constellations)
Light pollution has greatly diminished our relationship with the night sky. This astronomy activity provides links to explore the night sky, introduces the most recognized constellations, and includes templates to map Ursa Minor and Canis Major using images of the book’s characters.

Painting Darkness (Art & Science)
To highlight how nature has its own ways to light up the darkness, this activity provides links to study bioluminescence and tapetum lucidum and shares a wax resist art project.

Math (to Illuminate) Problems (Math)
Readers are encouraged to go on a nighttime neighborhood walk with a parent or guardian to count the number of illuminated outdoor lights. Back at home or in the classroom, they can calculate the cost of keeping the lights on.

Calling for Lights Out (Social Action & Science)
Taking everything they have learned, readers can call for “lights out” in their home or community. This activity includes a light pollution informational sheet/letter, an action guide, and blank templates to create their own versions of both.

Shedding Light on Lights Out (English Language Arts)
Author Marsha Diane Arnold offers opportunities for readers to explore the book’s structure, write haiku, create and send a persuasive letter, and write up their observations of nature.

Lights Out in Many Voices (Readers’ Theater)
Author Marsha Diane Arnold wants many voices raised against light pollution. With this Readers’ Theater Script, readers can join a multi-voice read aloud.


DOWNLOAD Lights Out: Activities for Educators & Readers (PDF)

Images © Susan Reagan

ABOUT THE BOOK

Lights Out
By Marsha Diane Arnold
Illustrated by Susan Reagan
Published by The Creative Company
ISBN-13: 9781568463407
Age Range: 6 – 8 Years

In a world marred by light pollution, this quest for true darkness is a clarion call to turn out the lights—so that all may see.

“Creatures search for Night in this story about the negative effects of light pollution. In the coastal town in which they live, Fox and Beetle see an abundance of artificial light and set out to search for “the Dark of Night.” Instead, they find electric lights everywhere, ones that confuse Songbird, silence Frog, and disturb Bear’s hibernation. Each of these creatures joins Fox and Beetle on their journey into new terrains, including mountains, deserts, and dunes, but all are still dominated by electric lights. When they come upon baby turtles hatching on the shore, the creatures decide to swim to a small island. Finally, they see the natural nighttime light they crave. A rhythmic refrain (“Across the wide, wide world, / they search… / for the Dark of Night. // But everywhere—Lights!”) creates a satisfying cadence in the text. Two spreads toward the open and close of the story feature short rhymes in four stanzas about the kinds of artificial and natural lights the creatures encounter; these anchor the story and contrast the two kinds of light in appealing ways. The closing spreads with the dark sky and natural, nocturnal lights are enchanting. Stars twinkle, and the moon glows, as Mother Nature would have it. The fade-in title design on the book’s cover is especially smart, communicating much about the story. An author’s note kicks off the book, noting how little we hear about light pollution…Illuminating.”
—Kirkus Reviews

THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

17 individual copies of Lights Out were given away to educators, librarians, or literacy folks in October 2020. Our thanks to Creative Company and Marsha Diane Arnold for the generous donation!