Compare which surfaces feel warmer or cooler.

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Why Do We Touch Things to Learn?

People have always used their hands to learn. Long ago, people touched rocks and water to find out how things feel.

Your sense of touch helps you notice warm and cool things. People have used touch for a very long time!

Long Ago

People Used Touch

Early people touched stones, dirt, and water. They noticed some things felt warm and some felt cool.

1700s

First Thermometers

People made tools called thermometers. A thermometer — that means a tool that measures how hot or cold something is.

Today

We Explore with Touch

You can use your hands to notice if something feels warm or cool. Scientists still observe things by touching them safely!

Today we will explore a fun question. When you touch different things, what do you notice about how they feel?

SECTION 2

Big Ideas About Warm and Cool

Different surfaces — that means the outside part you can touch — feel different. Some feel warm. Some feel cool. Let's learn the big ideas!

Touch Tells Us a Lot

Your hands can feel if a surface is warm or cool. Touch is one of your five senses!

Surfaces Feel Different

A metal spoon feels cool. A fuzzy blanket feels warm. Different surfaces feel different!

We Can Compare

You can touch two things and say which one feels warmer and which feels cooler.

We Look for Patterns

A pattern — that means something that happens again and again. Metal things often feel cool!

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

KEY TAKEAWAY

SECTION 3

See It! Warm and Cool Surfaces

Look at the picture below. It shows things that feel warm and things that feel cool when you touch them.

The left side shows things that usually feel warm when you touch them. The right side shows things that usually feel cool when you touch them.

Do you see a pattern? Soft, fuzzy things often feel warm. Hard, smooth things like metal often feel cool.

SECTION 4

How Do We Know? We Use Our Hands!

You do not need fancy tools. You just need your hands! When you touch something, you can feel if it is warm or cool.

Here is how to compare — that means to see how two things are alike or different.

Touch one surface with your hand.
Then touch another surface with the same hand.
Ask yourself: which one feels warmer? Which one feels cooler?
Tell a friend what you noticed!

Be Safe!

When you compare surfaces, you are doing what scientists do. Scientists observe — that means to look closely and pay attention — to learn about the world.

SECTION 5

Different Materials Feel Different

Things are made of different materials — that means what something is made of, like wood, metal, or cloth. The material changes how a surface feels.

This picture shows materials on a line from cool to warm. Metal feels the coolest. Cloth feels the warmest.

Metal and tile usually feel cool to touch. Wood and cloth usually feel warm. Plastic feels somewhere in between. This is a pattern you can observe!

SECTION 6

Let's Try It Together!

Let's pretend we are in a kitchen. We want to compare how things feel. Let's go step by step!

Step 1 — Pick Two ThingsWe pick a metal spoon and a wooden spoon. Both are sitting on the counter.

Step 2 — Touch the First OneTouch the metal spoon with your hand. What do you notice? It feels cool and smooth.

The metal spoon feels cool.

Step 3 — Touch the Second OneNow touch the wooden spoon with the same hand. What do you notice? It feels warmer than the metal one.

The wooden spoon feels warmer.

Step 4 — Compare ThemNow we can say: the metal spoon feels cooler than the wooden spoon. The wooden spoon feels warmer than the metal spoon. Great job comparing!

Metal feels cooler. Wood feels warmer.

SECTION 7

Warm and Cool — Side by Side

Let's put what we know into a chart! This helps us see the pattern clearly.

How common surfaces feel when you touch them

Surface	How It Usually Feels	What It Is Made Of
Metal doorknob	Cool	Metal
Tile floor	Cool	Tile (ceramic)
Wooden block	Warm	Wood
Fuzzy blanket	Warm	Cloth (fabric)
Carpet	Warm	Cloth (fabric)

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

PATTERN ALERT

SECTION 8

What Will You Learn Next?

Right now, you are learning to feel warm and cool with your hands. As you grow, you will learn even more!

Your knowledge will keep growing!

What You Know Now	What You Will Learn Later
Some surfaces feel warm.	Warmth is a kind of energy.
Some surfaces feel cool.	You can measure with a thermometer.
Metal feels cooler than wood.	Different materials move warmth differently.
You use your hands to compare.	Scientists use many tools to measure energy.

You are building a strong start. Everything you learn now helps you later. Keep touching, feeling, and comparing!

SECTION 9