Environmental Lessons & Activities

Who Left The Lights On?

Topic: Energy
Grade: Kindergarten
Duration: 15 - 30 minutes
Download Printable PDF

Students will be challenged to turn out light in rooms when no one is in them.

Curriculum Expectations

• Ks18: Identify familiar technological items and describe their use in daily life
• Ks20: Work with others in using technology
• Kp29: Share responsibility for planning classroom events and activities

Background Information

By remembering to turn lights off when people aren't in a room, you can save energy. It takes 400 kg of coal just to run one 100-watt light bulb around the clock for one year. Turning off lights in a room no one is in is the easiest thing to do.

Accountability

Students will know how to be responsible for their actions and will remember to take turns turning lights off.

Teacher Notes

1. Gather students for circle time just before you go out of the class.
2. Ask students why we keep the lights on when we leave the room.
3. Make the class aware of where the light switches are in the room.
4. Ask what would happen if as a class the lights were turned off as people leave.
5. A new job in the class can be created - “light monitor”. The light monitor’s job is to turn off and on lights as people come and go in the room.
6. Discuss who else in the school forgets to turn off lights and how can the class help them to remember to turn them off, too.
7. Implement as many of the student's ideas as possible.

Home Extension

Check out where light switches are in your house. Look around the house and decide which lights are important to keep on and which ones should be turned off at night and when no one is in that room. Parents should show students where light switches are in various rooms of the house.