Hot, warm and cold

Ages 3 to 5 Read and do together · about 15 minutes

Read together

Ice is cold. A blanket is warm. Hot things can hurt.

The sun warms the ground.

Do it

1. Put a few ice cubes in a bowl in the sun and another in the shade. Which melts faster?
2. Touch things around the house and say: cold (a glass of water), warm (a blanket), cool (a tile floor).
3. Only grown-ups touch hot things. Learn the word “hot” and keep away.
4. Feel the ground in the sun and in the shade. Which feels warmer?

Talk about it

• What melts the ice faster?
• What is warm in our house?

For the grown-up

Sunlight warms the ground, and warmth melts ice. Teach children the word “hot” as a warning. Set the home water heater to no more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) if you can, and test bath water with your elbow.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• NGSS Lead States, Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (National Academies Press, 2013), performance expectation K-PS3-1 (sunlight warms the Earth's surface)
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, recommendation to set water heaters to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent scalds

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.