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Classroom Activities for When Daylight Saving Ends
Christy Walters
October 1, 2025
Fall is here, and for those of us who live in areas that observe daylight saving time, our clocks will “fall back” and return to standard time soon.
Whether your students love getting an extra hour of sleep or mourn the fact that it gets dark so early, you can take advantage of this timely event to teach what happens when daylight saving ends in your social studies, science, and ELA classrooms:
[Discover why we change our clocks in social studies](id-ss)
Why do we set the clocks ahead an hour in the spring and back again in the fall? What would happen if we didn’t? Students can explore why observe daylight saving time in the United States and its effects on our mood, economy, and wildlife with articles on topics like:
Why the autumnal equinox doesn’t fall on the same day every year.
What changes happen when we move the clocks back as fall arrives.
Why we need clocks and calendars to help us keep track of the passage of time.
[Debate the usefulness of the time change in ELA](id-ela)
Decide if we should keep daylight saving time all year
Do your students think we should continue to have daylight saving time each year or do away with it? Have them debate this topic using the following lesson:
Consider guiding questions for the debat, like “How does standard time affect our daily routines and activities?”
Share graphic organizers students can use while preparing for the debate—like a debate outline and pro/con analysis—to collect evidence and plot their ideas.
Hold an in-class debate about daylight saving time. Share the debate rubric and after-debate reflection for self-analysis after the lesson.
Don’t have time for a whole-class debate? Turn this activity into argumentative writing practice with Newsela Writing!
[Teach students about sunlight, seasons, and energy in science](id-sci)
Get students thinking about the science behind changing seasons and how it affects different parts of our daily lives.
Discover the science of time
Time is more tied to science and math than your students might think. Show them some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of time with articles on topics like:
The history of timekeeping.
The ways people have kept and told time throughout history.
Why people started keeping track of time and why it’s important.
Learn about data by tracking sunlight
In most parts of the country—and the world—days are often longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. Students can learn more about how sunlight varies in different locations and times of the year.
Explore the dataset of sunlight hours in different parts of the country.
Read about how on the first day of fall, every place in the world gets 12 hours of sunlight.
Analyze the angles of the Earth’s axis and tilt using an infographic.
Fall back on Newsela for lesson planning this school year
Need a quick, timely, and engaging lesson to supplement your core curriculum or cover a student interest topic? Newsela has your back! Our suite of subject products has various content and resources—like news articles, primary sources, literature selections, and interactive videos—to help you teach about any topic.
Not a Newsela customer yet? Sign up for Newsela Lite for free and start your 45-day trial. You’ll get access to our premium content and activities for everything you need to teach about daylight saving time ending and beyond.
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