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**National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration**

**National Weather Service**

**Raleigh, North Carolina**

**EXCESSIVE HEAT AWARENESS: ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN**

**[Younger children:]{.underline}**

-   Begin a talk about hot weather. How do they feel when it gets hot
    outside? Do they start to sweat? Discuss how sweat helps keep your
    body from getting too hot.

-   Step outside on a warm day. Ask them how they feel. Then, using a
    misting bottle filled with tepid water, spritz them on the arm or
    face with water. How do they feel after being misted? They should
    feel cooler. That's what sweating does---helps the body stay cool.

-   Introduce the concept of evaporation. Dampen a towel, and hang it
    up. The next day, have the children examine the now-dry towel. Where
    did all of the water go? Discuss how water is made up of tiny
    particles called molecules. In a solid form (ice), the molecules
    move very slowly. In a warmer, or liquid, state, the molecules move
    faster. Finally, in gas form, the molecules move even faster. The
    molecules of water on the towel moved faster and faster until they
    escaped into the air as water vapor.

-   Demonstrate the opposite of evaporation (condensation) by taking a
    very cold glass of water and placing it on a table. Within a few
    minutes, water droplets will form on the outside of the glass. Ask
    the children, \"Where did the water come from? Did it leak out of
    the glass?\" The answer is that air, which is laden with water
    vapor, comes in contact with the glass. This causes some of the
    water molecules to slow down and attach themselves to the glass. You
    can connect this to the previous experiment by explaining that the
    same water molecules that disappeared from the towel in the first
    activity are now reappearing on the outside of the water glass.

-   Have the children draw a picture of what they think a hot day looks
    like. What would they do to cool off on a hot day? Eat popsicles,
    play in the sprinkler, go swimming?

-   Discuss the concept of temperature. Show them a thermometer, and
    explain how it shows how hot or cold it is outside. Take an outside
    shade temperature at about the same time each day for a few weeks,
    and make a chart of the results. If desired, also take an outside
    temperature reading in the sun, and compare it to the shade reading.

-   Demonstrate how hot the sun is by placing one piece of chocolate in
    the sun, another nearby in the shade, and possibly a third inside an
    air-conditioned room. Discuss what happened and why.

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-   Demonstrate evaporation by doing salt paintings. Dissolve salt in an
    equal measure of warm water, add a few drops of food coloring, and
    stir to dissolve most of the salt. Repeat with different colors of
    food coloring. Paint a picture with the salt water. Ask the children
    what they think will happen after it dries. Let the picture dry
    overnight, & discuss the results.

**[Older children:]{.underline}**

-   Discuss the effects of humidity on evaporation. The more humid the
    air is, the less additional water it is able to hold. Inside an
    air-conditioned room, have a student dip one hand in tepid water.
    Start a timer and measure how long it takes for the hand to be
    completely dry. Next, step outside (but in the shade) on a hot humid
    day, and do the same thing. It should take longer for the water to
    totally evaporate outside compared to inside, since the relative
    humidity inside the air conditioning is lower and therefore the air
    can hold more moisture.

-   Discuss the effects of evaporation on temperature. Purchase or
    borrow a sling psychrometer (operating instructions are available on
    the Internet). This instrument is used to measure temperature and
    humidity, by giving a dry-bulb temperature and a wet-bulb
    temperature. Use the sling psychrometer to take both readings, then
    use a conversion table or weather calculator (found in
    meteorological texts or online) to calculate the relative humidity.
    Take measurements at various times of the day (e.g. early morning
    and again in mid afternoon) and chart the results.

-   Have the children use various weather forecast sources (such as
    weather.noaa.gov, newspapers, or the TV news) to put together their
    own forecast for their school. On a large sheet of paper, have them
    draw pictures depicting the expected weather for each day, along
    with the high and low temperatures. Use references to determine what
    the "normal" highs and lows are for that time of year, and discuss
    how the "normal" is just the average of all of the temperatures on
    that date over many years. Are the forecast temperatures above,
    below, or close to the normals? If you have access to a video
    camera, have the children put together a "weather report" just like
    TV weathercasters do.

-   Introduce the idea of warm air masses and cold air masses. Research
    various weather sources (see above) and use blank maps to plot cold
    fronts, warm fronts, high pressure areas, and low pressure areas.
    Include on the map several temperature readings from around the
    region. Where is it hottest and why? Where is it coolest? Research
    temperatures around the globe. What countries have the hottest
    temperatures?