Darkness dwellers

This resource requires children to imagine the world without any light. Drawing from nature for ideas and inspiration, they design ‘stick people’ with special features and powers to live in a world of darkness. The lesson is best done in a woodland or other natural environment, with an optional extension back in the classroom.

This lesson enables students to:

• Explore how nocturnal animals are adapted to live in their dark environment

• Consider how humans, in the absence of light, may use their other senses to navigate and understand the world

• Demonstrate their learning in their design and creation of a Darkness Dweller

The lesson are designed to help teachers cover the following subject areas:

Year 3 Plants: 

• identify and describe the functions of different parts of plants
•  explore the requirements of plants for life and growth

Year 3 Light:

• recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light
• recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object
• find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.

Year 6 Evolution and Inheritance:

• identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.