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Some things are hot, like soup. Some things are cold, like ice. A thermometer tells us how hot or cold something is.

Heat always moves from a hotter thing to a colder thing. That is why a hot drink cools down and an ice cube in your hand melts.

Heat moves easily through metal. Put a metal spoon in hot soup, and soon the handle is hot too! Wood lets heat through much more slowly.

Air lets heat through only slowly. Trapped air keeps things warm. Penguins trap air in their feathers, and a cat fluffs up its fur.

Experiment: Keep it warm!

1. Wrap each cup in a different material. Leave one cup with no wrap.
2. The teacher pours the same amount of warm water into every cup.
3. Guess which cup will stay warm the longest.
4. Wait 20 minutes. Then feel each cup's water with a finger, or measure it with the thermometer.
5. Put the cups in order from warmest to coolest. Was your guess right?

Wrap	Order (1 = warmest)
Scarf or sock
Bubble wrap
Foil
No wrap

Questions

1. Draw yourself dressed for a cold winter day. Which clothes keep you warm?

   🍎

2. Does heat move from hot to cold, or from cold to hot?

   hot to cold / cold to hot

3. Which wrap kept the water warm the longest? Why?

Sources for every fact on this sheet: echoesof.science/school/heat/sources/

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