Topic: Light & Dark | Autumn Term Curriculum Planning & Provision

💡 Exploring Light and Dark: A World of Shadows and Brightness

Welcome to our topic page dedicated to Light and Dark 🔆🌑, an essential and wonderfully investigative area of learning for EYFS and KS1 children! This introduction is designed to help practitioners explain this fundamental scientific concept in an engaging, hands-on way.

What is Light and Dark? 🔦

The concept of Light and Dark is about understanding how we see the world around us.

• Light is a form of energy that allows us to see things. When light hits an object and bounces into our eyes, that's how we perceive it! The Sun ☀️ is our most important natural source of light, but we also use man-made sources like lamps and torches.

• Darkness is simply the absence of light. It's when there is no light, or not enough light, for us to see clearly.

• An additional part of this topic is exploring shadows. A shadow forms when an opaque object blocks the path of light, which helps children visualise the interaction between light and objects.

Learning about Light and Dark encourages children to become scientific thinkers by observing the world, making predictions, and investigating different light sources and how they behave.

When and Why is the Topic Covered? 🌙

The topic of Light and Dark is a core unit for nurseries, preschools, reception classes, childminders, and Key Stage 1 (KS1) teachers across the UK. It is often covered during the autumn and winter terms in EYFS settings 🍂 and again in Year 1 or Year 2 as a dedicated Science topic.

Why this time?

• Natural Changes: The shorter, darker days of autumn and winter make the concept of darkness and light sources immediately relevant and observable.

• Curriculum Links: This topic forms a crucial part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum under Understanding the World (exploration and investigation). In Key Stage 1 (KS1), it is a statutory part of the Science curriculum, focusing on:

  • Identifying common light sources.

  • Understanding that dark is the absence of light.

  • Exploring how shadows are formed and how they change.

• Thematic Integration: It links perfectly with other seasonal themes, such as using torches during Nocturnal Animals studies, or talking about Bonfire Night and Diwali lights.

By offering high-quality, printable resources for EYFS and KS1, we aim to make teaching this key scientific concept both easy and fun! Use our materials to explore the engaging concept of light and dark. Please scroll down to browse our ‘Light and Dark’ enabling environment provision, including resources to support both in-the-moment magic and more adult-led focused learning. We hope it helps! 😊

Sections on this page:

• Free EYFS ‘Light & Dark’ Resources

• Themes within ‘Light & Dark’

  • 🌜 Comparing Day and Night

  • 🦉 Nocturnal Animals

  • 🔭 Space and the Celestial Sky

  • ❄️ The Changing Seasons

  • 🦔 Hibernation

  • ✨ Festivals, Celebrations & Fireworks

  • Exploring Light Sources and Shadows - Coming soon!

  • Testing Materials (Can light pass through?) - Coming soon!

Free ‘Light & Dark’ Downloads for Early Years

Join for free and download our inspirational ‘Light & Dark’ themed educational printable resources in this ‘Free Samples’ section!

(Click on the images below to find out more)

If you are not a member already, become a ‘Free Access’ member here. This will give you access to resources within the ‘Free Sample Resources’ sections at the top of most pages and ‘Special Dates Calendars’. Some whole topics are even free! Find out more about all of our membership options here. If you are already a member… thank-you!

Please note that both Editable (docx file) and non-editable (pdf file) versions are available for all ‘Light and Dark’ topic resources. (Editable files require Microsoft Word to work at optimum level and Non-Editable files require a pdf viewer.)

Click on the thumbnail images of resources on this page for further details…

🌞🌜 Comparing Day and Night | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

The 'Day and Night' sub-theme provides a natural, daily context for exploring the concept of 'Light and Dark' by focusing on the cycle of the Earth's rotation. It helps children understand that light (day) is caused by the sun, and dark (night) occurs when we face away from the sun, making it a foundational concept for the overall theme.

🦉 Nocturnal Animals | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

The 'Nocturnal Animals' sub-theme provides a fascinating, real-world connection to the 'Light and Dark' theme by exploring how creatures like owls and bats adapt their behaviour to the darkness. This helps children understand that while we sleep, the night is actually a time of activity for many animals, encouraging them to look beyond the light and appreciate the natural world's cycles.

To explore our entire ‘Nocturnal Animals’ collection, please visit our ‘Nocturnal Animals’ topic page.

🔭 Space and the Celestial Sky | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

This extends the topic outwards, linking 'dark' with the vastness of space.

• The Sun, Moon, and Stars: Exploring the objects that light up the night sky and how the cycle of day and night is caused by the Earth rotating.

• Exploring Space: Learning about astronauts and space travel (e.g., using stories like The Darkest Dark), linking to the darkness of space and the light of distant stars.

To explore our entire ‘Space’ collection, please visit our ‘Space’ topic page.

🌞❄️ The Changing Seasons | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

The 'Changing Seasons' sub-theme naturally integrates with 'Light and Dark' by focusing on the noticeable, real-world reduction in daylight hours throughout the autumn term. This allows children to directly observe how the shifting seasons bring more darkness into their daily lives, providing a meaningful context for exploring the scientific reasons behind the changing amount of light we experience. For example, in the resources below you can see clear image depictions of the day/night ratio changing.

To explore our entire ‘Seasons’ collection, please visit our ‘The Changing Seasons’ topic page.

🦔 Hibernation | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

The 'Hibernation' sub-theme provides a natural transition from the 'Light and Dark' theme by showing how animals respond to the increasing darkness and lack of food that signal winter's approach. This allows children to investigate how creatures like hedgehogs use a long, deep sleep as a survival strategy, linking the seasonal change in light levels to the fascinating ways animals prepare for and survive the cold, dark months.

To explore our entire ‘Hibernating Animals’ collection, please visit our ‘Hibernation’ topic page.

✨ Festivals and Celebrations | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision

The 'Light and Dark' theme in the autumn term for EYFS and KS1 is perfectly aligned with several major festivals and celebrations. These events often use light to symbolise the triumph of good over evil, the coming of winter, or a time of reflection and renewal.

Here are the key festivals and celebrations you could cover:

🌟 Festivals of Light

These celebrations use various forms of light, such as candles, lamps, and fireworks, as a central element, making them highly relevant to the theme.

• Diwali (The Festival of Lights):

  • Focus: The spiritual victory of light over darkness and good over evil.

  • Key Activities: Lighting diva lamps (small oil lamps) and candles, creating Rangoli patterns (floor decorations) with bright colours, making and sharing sweets, and watching fireworks.

  • Links to Light/Dark: Discussing the story of Rama and Sita's return and how the villagers lit the way for them with rows of lamps.

• Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Night):

  • Focus: Commemorating the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in the UK (November 5th).

  • Key Activities: Watching fireworks (light and sound), lighting bonfires (fire and heat), and talking about firework safety.

  • Links to Light/Dark: The bright, noisy lights of the fireworks against the dark night sky.

• Hanukkah (The Festival of Lights):

  • Focus: An eight-day Jewish celebration commemorating the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

  • Key Activities: Lighting one new candle on the menorah (a nine-branched candelabrum) each night, singing special songs, and playing the dreidel game.

  • Links to Light/Dark: The miracle of the oil that burned for eight days and nights.

🎄 Winter and Seasonal Celebrations

As the autumn term progresses and the days get shorter, these celebrations focus on bringing light into the dark winter season.

• Christmas:

  • Focus: A Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed during the darkest part of the year.

  • Key Activities: Decorating with fairy lights and candles, lighting an Advent wreath (if observed), and the concept of the Star of Bethlehem guiding the Wise Men.

  • Links to Light/Dark: The symbolism of Jesus as "the light of the world."

• Autumn Equinox / Mabon (A Pagan Festival):

  • Focus: Marking the point where day and night are of equal length, before the darkness takes over for winter. It's a time for the second harvest and giving thanks.

  • Key Activities: Gathering and celebrating the last of the harvest, making lanterns (historically, people used hollowed-out turnips or gourds).

  • Links to Light/Dark: Discussing the changing length of daylight hours.

💀 Other Relevant Autumn Celebrations

These events offer additional opportunities to explore themes of darkness, shadows, and the night.

• Halloween / Samhain (Celtic Origin):

  • Focus: The night before All Saints' Day. Historically, Samhain was the Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the transition into the 'darker half' of the year.

  • Key Activities: Carving jack-o'-lanterns (originally to ward off evil spirits, using light inside a dark shell), dressing up, and shadow play.

  • Links to Light/Dark: The use of lanterns and fires to keep the darkness at bay.

🔦 Exploring Light Sources and Shadows | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision - Coming soon!

This is a core scientific element of the theme, focusing on how light and objects interact.

• Shadow Play and Investigation: Exploring how shadows are made when light is blocked by an opaque object. Children can investigate how shadows change size and shape as the light source moves closer or further away.

  • Activities: Shadow puppets, tracing playground shadows at different times of the day, and working in a 'dark den' or tent with torches.

• Reflectors and Sources: Identifying natural and man-made sources of light (sun, fire, lamps) and objects that reflect light (mirrors, foil, reflective strips on clothing).

🪟 Testing Materials (Can light pass through?) | EYFS & KS1 ‘Light and Dark’ Provision - Coming soon!

Opaque, Translucent, and Transparent: Investigating different materials to see if light can pass through them.

• Vocabulary: Transparent (light passes through easily, e.g., clear plastic), translucent (some light passes through, e.g., tracing paper), and opaque (no light passes through, e.g., card).

Light and Dark | Related Themes

Please browse our additional themes relating to ‘Light and Dark’ below.

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