Sunlight & warmth · Kindergarten
What does sunshine do to sand, water and rocks?
Sunlight makes sand, water and rocks warmer.
Things in the shade stay cooler.
Standard: K-PS3-1*. Children make observations to find out what sunlight does to Earth's surface (sand, soil, rocks and water). Temperature stays relative: cooler, warmer, hot. No numbers.
What your child does: sets out sand, water and a rock in the sun and in the shade, feels them before and after a sunny morning, and records each one as cool, warm or hot on a chart. Then they compare, and use what they found to decide what should go in the sun or the shade.
Talk about it: "Why does the slide feel hot in summer?" · "Where would you sit on a hot day?" · "Why did the water warm up less?"
Try it for real: on a sunny morning, put two cups of water, two dishes of sand and two dark stones outside, one of each in the sun and one in the shade. Feel them at lunchtime. (Check the sunny ones first: a dark stone can get very hot.)
*Next Generation Science Standards and NGSS are registered trademarks of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.