Materials
Thermometers
Clear plastic cups
Warm and cold water
Instructions
1. Show the children a thermometer and ask them what they think it might be. Ask them to tell things that they notice about the thermometer, for example, it has lines on it.
2. Explain the various uses of thermometers. Tell the children that there is something called mercury inside the thermometer, and the mercury expands and contracts when it becomes hotteror colder.
3. Tell the children to choose a partner, or you can pair them off.
4. Give each pair of children a thermometer.
5. Let the children move the thermometer from warm to cold water and observe which way the mercury moves. They will need help reading their thermometers.
6. After the children have had adequate exploration time, encourage them to discuss their observations as a class.More to doLanguage: Read seasonal books, such as The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and encourage the children to tell you whether the mercury in a thermometer would be high or low in that type of weather.Movement: Ask the children to crouch down and pretend that they are the mercury in a thermometer. Call out hot, warm, cool and cold. Let them move up and down as if they are the mercury.Snack: Give the children freeze pops and let them squeeze the ice up and down like the mercury inside a thermometer.Original poemUp and down, the mercury goes.Down means cold for fingers and toes.Up, up, up as the weather gets hot.Too hot? I hope not!
