How to Teach Water Temperatures to your Children

I am fairly certain that my 2-year old twins have mastered the difference between temperatures but sometimes they say something that makes me reconsider this! I decided to have a wet afternoon and to show / teach them the difference between freezing, cold, warm and hot, to make sure. Here's what we did:

• We placed some filled ice-cube trays into the freezer, after I showed them that the water 'moves'.


• Once the ice was ready, I set up 4 bowls of water - 2 cold, 1 warm and 1 hot (as hot as the babes can stand it).


• When we took the ice-cubes out of the freezer, I showed them that the water no longer 'moves' and they felt that the ice-cubes were hard. Together, we put the ice-cubes into 1 of the cold water bowls. I would recommend checking that the frozen water temperature is actually colder than the cold water, as I found that the ice did not cool the water enough so the cold water had to be slightly heated up (but still be cooler than the warm).


• We placed our hands into the different bowls:
• Cold water bowl: I explained that this was cold but warmer than the ice water and cooler than the warm bowl.
• Ice water bowl: I explained that this was icy from the ice and the coldest of all the bowls.
• When we put our hands back into the cold water bowl, I reiterated that the water was warmer than the ice water.
• Warm water bowl: I explained that this was warm and also warmer than the cold and ice water but cooler than the hot water.
• Hot water bowl: I explained that this was the hottest water temperature.
• We put our hands in and out of all of them to feel the difference between warmer and cooler and the differing temperatures.
• I really confused them by getting them to place one hand in the cold bowl and the other in the hot bowl for a moment and then to place them both in the warm bowl.




It seems to have been a success as they were correctly repeating cold, hot, warmer etc. Afterwards they started scooping out the ice and mixing the water temperatures up, followed by a good splash; leaving the kitchen floor drenched! A good afternoon of playing to learn.