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How could you walk barefoot across hot pavement without burning your feet?
Weather Watching Unit | Lesson 6 of 0
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How could you walk barefoot across hot pavement without burning your feet?

Weather Watching Unit | Lesson 6 of 0
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# Optional Activity: Where Is It Hot? Where Is It Not?

Now that you know where it's too hot to walk barefoot, you can also figure out when to sit if you want cool off on a hot day.

  • Take a look at the photo on the next page and think about clues that tell you where it’s hot and where it’s cool.
  • Discuss: Where would you go if you wanted to stay cool? Where would you go if you wanted to warm up? What clue are you using to make your choice?

# Here's what we think

We know that sunshine warms things up.

So if we want to cool off, we look for a shady spot. If we want to warm up, we find a place in the sun.

Next time you're outside on a sunny day, compare the temperature in the sun with the temperature in the shade. Do you feel a difference?

🎉 That’s it for this lesson! How did it go?
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# Extensions

Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the activity & exploration you just completed.

# Activities

  • Where Is It Warmer?: Take a walk outside on a sunny day and challenge students to find the warmest and coldest spots they can. Encourage them to feel different kinds of surfaces—blacktop, brick, rocks, metal, soil, sand—in sun and in shade. Remind them that the sun is always moving, so the middle of a shadow will be cooler than its outer edges.

  • Help Keya get to the ice cream truck without burning her feet. You will need to print out a map handout for each student.

Featured Reviews

“The kids were very engaged and liked figuring out the Mystery.”
· Wendy · Teacher
“The story and the worksheets were so much fun! The students enjoyed asking and answering questions.”
· Lake · Teacher
“We liked using the map and hopping around our classroom!”
· · Teacher
“Following the map was a GREAT skill to have the kids learn!!! I loved printing them out and having them figure out the path with a friend!”
· Lee · Teacher
“Students could relate to the story and were able to make connections to their experiences.”
· Michele · Teacher
“The "find a path for Keya" worksheet was a fun challenging exercise. It really helped students stretch their thinking. ”
· Florence · Teacher
“The children loved watching/reading the video/book. They really had to think about how to get Keya to the icecream truck! The picture of the playground at the end in "Optional Activities" was appropriately challenging for some and led to some nice discussion! Wonderful!”
· · Teacher
“This was really fun! My first grade intervention group really liked working this out and they found the similar path, as in the story solution. ”
· Lisa · Teacher
“My students came up with lots of different ways that Keya could get to the ice cream truck. This activity encouraged them to ask intelligent questions and think outside the box.”
· Bridget · Teacher
“The students loved the story HOT FEET! They especially loved figuring out the path that was the "coolest" & were excited that it matched the video!”
· · Teacher
“Because this was just a story (and crazy hyper Kindergarteners need a bit more to drive a concept home) I made a coding activity that had shaded squares and not shaded squares. Students had to code their toy person to safety! ”
· Kim · Teacher
“the kids really like the story and they discovered that there was more than one path for the girl to take to solve her problem. Afterwards, my students actually built a scene at the pool with shade, puddles, and grass to walk on without getting their feet burnt!!”
· Amanda · Teacher
“We added a quick lab were we tested black paper (pavement), water (puddles), and a mini umbrella (shade) under a lamp. Then we felt to see which felt the hottest. So cute! Thanks MS we love these lessons. ”
· Molly · Teacher
“Kids were super engaged and loved the "mystery" of how to find the route she should take. They worked in groups and compared answers.The combination of photos also helped us talk about expository vs narrative illustrations.”
· Brittany · Teacher
“My only change would be to have them do the activity before the video gives the hints about the shade from the umbrellas and such. Then they could watch the hints and revise their path if needed with the new information. I also talked about pool safety and asked them to come up with a route that she could take if she was older and could swim by herself.”
· Anna · Teacher
“They had so many different alternatives (swim across the pool, jump in the puddles and get her dad to give her a piggy back ride to the car to get her shoes) :) You really had them thinking! I liked how they could get their wiggles out and jump in the middle of the lesson. ”
· Rae · Teacher
“The map activity was perfect support to the concept of temperature and sunlight for my kindergarten students. Activities that help relate to real situations that my students can encounter are awesome. Keep them coming!!! ”
· Daniel · Teacher

Grade K

Weather & Seasons

Sunlight, Heat, & Earth's Surface

K-PS3-1, K-PS3-2

Activity Prep

Print Prep

Switch to non-narrated version

In this Read-Along lesson, Keya needs to find a way to get from the swimming pool to the ice cream truck without burning her bare feet on the hot pavement. This lesson includes a short exercise where students practice mapping a cool path across the hot pavement, and then act it out. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Where Is It Hot? Where Is It Not?, where students examine a photo and look for sunny hot spots and shady cool spots.
Preview optional activity
Prep Instructions

This activity does not require supplies.

To prepare for the Read-Along lesson, print out a copy of "Find a cool path for Keya" for each student.

The optional activity at the end of the Read-Along lesson requires no additional supplies.

Grade K

Weather & Seasons

Sunlight, Heat, & Earth's Surface

K-PS3-1, K-PS3-2

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