Millions of people will switch off their lights on Saturday for Earth Hour, a campaign to raise awareness of climate change and environmental issues.
Whether it's researching the famous landmarks that take part, discussing ways of saving energy or investigating endangered species, we have plenty of teaching resources to ensure that pupils won't be left in the dark.
Get started with this Earth Hour assembly presentation. It encourages pupils to think about some of the environmental challenges the world is facing and steps they can take to help. Pupils can then test their knowledge of endangered species in this PowerPoint quiz.
WWF, the organisers of Earth Hour, have also created a support pack for schools. It contains a range of ideas to get pupils thinking about their own environmental concerns. In one activity, pupils write a wish for the planet's future on a star that can be cut out, decorated and used to make a display of the night sky featuring animal-shaped constellations.
In another activity, pupils learn about endangered species using a selection of fact sheets. Working in groups, pupils must find an engaging way of sharing information about their animal with the rest of the class. Ideas include playing a "Who am I?" guessing game or making a PowerPoint presentation. As a homework activity, pupils can use these templates to create fact sheets about either the snow leopard, African elephant or bottlenose dolphin. Additional templates for the mountain gorilla, polar bear and hawksbill turtle are available on the Earth Hour website.
Along with raising awareness of environmental issues, Earth Hour 2014 aims to raise funds for WWF's work in the Mara, Kenya. Pupils can undertake sponsored events such as a cake sale or fashion show featuring accessories made from recycled materials. There's a sponsorship form and poster to publicise any events which pupils plan. There's also a certificate for recognising any special achievements.
Another idea is to hold an Earth Hour talent show, with tips provided in this pack. It suggests that pupils express their wishes for the future of the planet through poetry, rap, dance or song. Alternatively, pupils could invite parents and carers to a school art gallery full of paintings and collages inspired by Earth Hour.
Pupils can look back at previous Earth Hours with these Guardian image galleries from 2012 and 2013. Can pupils identify some of the famous landmarks that switched off their lights? Can they plot them on a world map? You could use the images as a stimulus for a lesson about light and dark with primary pupils or about the properties of light with secondary pupils.
There's also a video about Earth Hour and an article which takes a quirky look at things to do in the dark. Suggestions include making shadow puppets on the wall with a torch and looking at the stars. What suggestions do your students have? Organise these into a top 10.
One idea might be to listen to an audio book of Just So stories by Rudyard Kipling, recorded specially for Earth Hour by WWF-UK ambassadors Kevin McCloud, Alistair McGowan and Miranda Richardson. The 60 minute book, available on the Earth Hour website, includes family favourites such as "How the camel got his hump", "The crab that played with the sea" and "How the whale got his throat".
You might also want to use Earth Hour as a stimulus for some maths activities. At different points each day leading up to the event, ask pupils working in pairs to calculate how many days, hours and minutes are left until the big switch off at 8.30pm on Saturday. Or, using figures from online sources including the Earth Hour website, ask pupils to investigate how participation in the event has grown since it was first held in 2007. Use this information to create diagrams and graphs.
For more lesson ideas, check out our How to teach articles about climate change, polar meltdown and saving energy.
