Background information:

Energy is the lifeblood of our modern life. It gives us light and keeps our food fresh, it powers our industry, it fuels our cars, and charges our iPhones. Our energy is produced by burning fossil fuels and this has a range of environmental, social and economic impacts. One of the most significant being the emission of greenhouse gases. A solution is a transition to clean energy sources. The brilliant thing is that we have huge amounts of free, renewable and clean supplies of natural energies like wind, sun and oceans. Another solution is to reduce the amount of energy we use on a day to day basis.

Concepts and definitions:

Energy - Scientists describe energy as the ability of a body or system to do work. Energy is all around us and is constantly changing. When you feel the warmth of the sun on your back you're enjoying the heat energy from the sun. When you cook over a campfire you're using heat energy converted from the stored energy in the wood you're burning. There is energy in the food that we eat. This energy comes from plants that used the energy from the sun. And there is the energy we use for making electricity. In most parts of Australia, electricity comes from the heat produced when burning coal.
Electricity - Electricity is a form of energy. We use this energy in almost every aspect of our lives; heating and cooling, cooking, lighting, for charging phones and computers, for watching TV and listening to music, even for charging (some of) our cars. In Australia, we get most of our electricity from burning coal. To convert coal to electricity it needs to be dug out of the ground and then burned, a process which releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and climate change. Using less electricity and finding alternative and greener sources of electricity - such as wind or solar - is essential to addressing climate change.

New words for children to learn:

Electricity
Energy

Activity - Hot and cold

Ages - 0 to 2

What to do

Preparation: Arrange a sensory table with items that either feel warm or cold. You could include items such as glass, an aluminium can, cold water, warm water, paper, ice cubes, a plastic water bottle or tub. Consider putting some items in the fridge prior to the activity to cool them down further.

Ask children to handle the objects, describing how they feel. Talk about whether the objects feel warm or cold.

What other items in the room or yard feel warm or cold? Use the Hot and cold labels to identify which items are hot or cold.

If it’s sunny outside, take some of the items from the sensory table outside and lay them in the sun. Do they move from cold to warm when in the sun?

Provocations

I wonder which objects are warm?
I wonder which objects are cold?
I wonder if the sun will warm up the cold objects?

Possible lines of development

Other aspects of objects - soft and hard, rough and smooth, light and heavy.
Playing with ice - what happens to ice in the sun or in your hand? Is it nice to eat ice? How does it make you feel?
Sun safety.
Put some water in the sun - on the ground or in a bowl - and leave it for a while. Does it disappear?

Ages - 2 to 3

What to do

Preparation: Arrange a sensory table with items that either feel warm or cold. You could include items such as glass, an aluminium can, cold water, warm water, paper, ice cubes, a plastic water bottle or tub. Consider putting some items in the fridge prior to the activity to cool them down further.

Ask children to handle the objects, describing how they feel. Talk about whether the objects feel warm or cold.

What other items in the room or yard feel warm or cold? Use the Hot and cold labels to identify which items feel hot or cold.

If it’s sunny outside, take some of the items from the sensory table outside and lay them in the sun. Do they move from cold to warm when in the sun?

How do we warm up when we are cold? And how do we cool down when we are hot?

For example:

We can take off our jumper or put a jumper on;
We can sit in the sun or sit in the shade;
We can open the window or we can close the window; or
We can turn on the fan or the air conditioner or turn on the heater.

Which of these uses electricity?

What other things in your room use electricity? Work as a group to identify all the things that use electricity in your room or centre. Use the Electricity labels to show which items in your room or centre use electricity.

Provocations

I wonder which objects will be warm to touch?
I wonder which objects will be cold to touch?
I wonder if the sun will warm up the cold objects?
I wonder how we can get warm if we are cold?
I wonder how we can cool down if we are too hot?
I wonder what things that use electricity can help us to cool down or warm up?
I wonder what other things in our centre use electricity?

Possible lines of development

Other aspects of objects - soft and hard, rough and smooth, light and heavy.
Playing with ice - what happens to ice in the sun or in your hand? Is it nice to eat ice? How does it make you feel?
Sun safety.
Electricity safety.
Put some water in the sun - on the ground or in a bowl - and leave it for a while. Does it disappear?

Ages - 3 to 5

What to do

Preparation: Arrange a sensory table with items that either feel warm or cold. You could include items such as glass, an aluminium can, cold water, warm water, paper, ice cubes, a plastic water bottle or tub. Consider putting some items in the fridge prior to the activity to cool them down further.

Begin by asking children to guess which items they think will be either warm or cold. Ask children to handle the objects, describing how they feel. Talk about whether the objects feel warm or cold: did they guess correctly?

What other items in the room or yard feel warm or cold? If it’s sunny outside, take some of the items outside and lay them in the sun. Do they move from cold to warm when in the sun?

How do we warm up when we are cold? And how do we cool down when we are hot?

For example:

We can take off our jumper or put a jumper on;
We can sit in the sun or sit in the shade;
We can open the window or we can close the window; or
We can turn on the fan or the air conditioner or turn on the heater.

Which of these uses electricity? What other things use electricity at your centre? What about home? Use the Electricity labels to identify which items in your room or centre use electricity.

Either working as a group or working independently ask children to make a house out of play dough. In their house they should include at least one thing that uses energy. This should be made in a different colour to the rest of the house.

Provocations

I wonder which objects will be warm to touch?
I wonder which objects will be cold to touch?
I wonder if the sun will warm up the cold objects?
I wonder how we can get warm if we are cold?
I wonder how we can cool down if we are too hot?
I wonder what things that use electricity can help us to cool down or warm up?
I wonder what other things in our centre use electricity?
I wonder what things at home use electricity?

Possible lines of development

Sun safety.
Electricity safety.
Put some water in the sun - on the ground or in a bowl - and leave it for a while. Does it disappear?
Ice in the sun - where does it go?
Hot or cold? Use the Hot and cold labels to identify which items in your room or centre feel hot or cold.

Evaluation

Complete an analysis of learning listing evidence about:

Belonging	Finding something of interest
Communication	Expressing an idea or feeling
Exploration	Engaging with challenge and persisting when difficulty arises
Well being	Being involved

Embedding into daily practice

Switch it off. Practice a switch-off regime, encouraging children to monitor the switching off of lights and appliances when not in use.
Dress for the weather. Encourage educators, children and parents to dress for the weather to avoid the need for artificial heating and cooling.

Hot and Cold

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