Glow. Days. Are. Awesome. I can’t stress this enough!! And after almost a year and a half of not being in the classroom in person with students what better way to start the year than with glow sticks?! It's an obvious no brainer :)
But, if you’ve never hosted a glow day before I can definitely understand how this could be intimidating. Before my first classroom glow day I spent a kazillion hours researching online for info and I just couldn’t find much. SO, here I am to share what I’ve learned along the way:
Make it Dark:
The first thing you need to tackle is to make your classroom as dark as possible. There are a lot of black out curtain options available online but my favorite, and likely your cheapest option, is heavy duty black trash bags.
Then of course, is the all important question:
How do I make my classroom glow? Black lights will make all neon, glow in the dark, and black light reactive materials shine brightly. A quick search online will show you that black lights are an expensive investment!! So let’s answer the next pressing question:
How many black lights do I need for a classroom? The simple (but not so helpful) answer is: it depends on the size of your classroom and how much you want things to glow. When I hosted my first glow day I used 4 of these black light bars. It definitely worked, my students LOVED it, and there was definitely a WOW factor. I invested in a few more lights as the years went on but I probably never used more than six black light bars in my classroom. I did, however, also invest in these cute black light flashlights. They are relatively cheap and my students loved having their own light to flash around. I use them for a little hide-and-seek leprechaun activity for St. Patrick’s Day.
Make it Glow:
There are so many things that glow with black lights and here are some of my favorites:
Glow sticks
Black light reactive tape
Neon pipe cleaners
Glow-in-the-dark paint
Yellow highlighters
Astro Bright neon printer paper (certain colors glow better than others)
Make it Educational:
I prefer to use glow days and other room transformation days for content review, and will often plan one of these events to help students prepare for a unit assessment or end of term exam. It is a great way to keep kids excited and engaged in what might otherwise be a dull activity. I have used task cards and QR readers to keep kids working hard throughout the glow day activity.
Make it a Competition:
I taught 4th grade for the longest time and if there is one thing I learned about kids that age it’s that EVERYTHING is a competition. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I made a lot of my activities competitions. What did the winning team win? Eternal glory. #teachertip
Make it Fun and Relevant:
Simply ask yourself two questions:
What are YOU excited about?
What are your KIDS excited about?
If some of your students love golf…incorporate golf into your glow day! If you love basketball? Incorporate basketball into your glow day.
Make it Happen:
You’ll never know if you don’t try. I truly believe glow days are magical learning days. Students are so enthusiastic about working hard and that brings me so much joy as a teacher. I promise you will not regret it. An easy way to start is that first week back to school. The stakes are low because there is no educational content involved. Just a few kids and their teacher getting to know each other:
Have you tried glow days before? Share your best tips and tricks in the comments below!