Daylight Saving Lesson Plan: People, Places, and Environments

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Daylight Saving Time Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Daylight Saving Time and builds understanding of why we change our clocks every March and November. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask:

  • What do we do to our clocks when daylight saving time begins? What do you do when it ends? Why do we change the clocks at all?
  • Which do you prefer, the start of daylight saving time (springing forward), or the end (falling back)? Why?

Generate a list on the board showing students’ responses to the question

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read aloud the description on the Daylight Saving Time topic page. 
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Way Back When,” “Did You Know,” “Around The World,” or “Quirky Stuff.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Daylight Saving Time Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about Daylight Saving Time while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a movie about how William Willet came up with the idea for daylight saving time, and advocating for its inception.
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying the benefits of daylight saving time historically and today. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a flag that represents the Energy Policy Act of 2007.

More to Explore  

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of people, places, and environments with these topics: Latitude and Longitude and Time Zones.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.7