Another Glow Day is in the books! It was a complete success! Different school, different district–same fun (plus a few extra things!) So if you have read my blog post from Glow Day 2019–I have upgraded a few things, unfortunately had to eliminate NEON Connect Four (it isn’t sold anymore and I left mine at my old campus), and basically just made Glow Day BIGGER and BETTER!
I am going to show pictures and show you allll the fun we had, etc. However, more of what this post will be about is how to do Glow Day in an affordable way and some tips for setting up Glow Day!
First, space everything out (purchases) throughout the whole year. You are welcome to ask your school to help pay for these items–just remember, what they pay for (black lights, etc.) stays there if you leave. I chose to pay for it all myself and ask parents for help on the consumable items! These items (pictured above) were things that the parents helped with! They can be found on Amazon (I did a wish list and sent the link to my parents) but also these are available at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. Since I had the whole grade level rotating through my classroom–I also bought some out of pocket in bulk on Amazon.
Now to the activities. You can do a variety of things for Glow Day. It just depends on what time will allow at your school, in your class, if you do multiple classes, etc. Everything I used (and so much more) is in my Glow Day Resource. I laminated everything I could so I can reuse it next year. This station shows The Science Behind Glow Stick reading passage I created with comprehension questions. Also, at this station, every child got a Glow Stick Bracelet.
The Neon Cardstock is from Amazon (Astrobrights Brand.) I printed all Station Instruction Cards on cardstock and laminated. The neon cardstock (anything neon) glows in the black light! The students used highlighters to answer their questions instead of pencils. The highlighter also glows in the black lights!
Also, these neon tabs were a new addition this year and oh my goodness!! 1. The kids loved them. 2. I was able to reuse the passages over and over again because they were laminated and the students used the tabs to prove their answers. 3. They glow because they are neon…so again, the kids were in love! Side note, the kids WILL get highlighter crazy because they are blown away that highlighter glows in black light. Let them. It is an easy way to engage them.
One of the kids’ favorite memories from Glow Day was our administration came in and participated. Our principal, Mr. Stuard and Assistant Principal, Mrs. Clugston were right in the middle of it all–doing the work and bickering about showing their work. lol. 🙂 (see the video at the end of the post.) The kids were loving it. Also during this time we had our executive principal, Mr. Conley come in and work with the kids, and our superintendent, Mr. Clugston coming in with the fist bumps. Honestly, all of these people are in almost every classroom daily anyway–so it was just another day for them–but having Mr. Stuard and Mrs. Clugston actually be “students” just made the day perfect for the kids!
Moving on to our Poetry Station. I didn’t laminate these because I wanted to kids to be able to mark on the poem (number lines, stanzas, etc) and answer the questions. Again, they get a little “highlighter happy” but the point is…they showed strategies.
I also asked the kids to wear anything neon if possible. Next year, I plan on doing white shirts and splatter paint them with neon paint. None of this is mandatory but made it a bit more fun when they walked in. I do not have windows in my room (which I hate–lol) but for Glow Day, it made it easier. If you do have windows, just cover them with butcher paper. You will also notice everything neon in my room (anchor charts, rugs, etc.) was glowing from the black lights as well.
There are a ton of activities in the Glow Day Resource! Author’s Purpose, Reading Skill Review (with Neon JENGA), Text Structure, Connect Four Writing Prompts, Poetry, Reading Comprehension, and the list goes on! Feel free to check out my 2019 Glow Day to see the activities I used then! This year I had an hour with each class so we focused on what we KNEW we needed the most as a grade level. Next year, we are all going to do it–so I plan on using more activities and making an entire day of it.
Now, to tie up the loose ends. I added neon balloons around the room, and neon tape around each desk. Anything extra you can do will make the room “glow” more. I also bought neon dry erase markers. These are great for drawing on the desk (see 2019 post) AND I had every child sign my board with one. By the end of the day (actually day 2) it looked so cool on the board!
How did I set up with black lights? Easy…find an outlet and plug them in. People always think you have to put them a certain way, place, etc. You really don’t. I just plugged them in and positioned them how I wanted them! I also had some extra glow things to pass out as prizes as the students were working!
And that is a wrap! Watch the fun (short) video below of just a recap of the day–and I am linking my all products below through Amazon!
(Note: This product guide contains affiliate links)
We had a Glow Day this year using your blog as inspiration. Everyone LOVED it!! Students, teachers , and Admin were involved. Look forward to next year