The Energy Activities with Energy Ant booklet is a collaborative project developed by 

the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project.

Energy Ant is the host of the Energy Kids website

http://www.eia.gov/kids

The Energy Ant is a service mark of the 

U.S. Department of Energy

ENERGY ACTIVITY:

Motion

Make a circle around the objects that burn fuel to move.

Make an “X” through the objects that need people power to move.
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PREDICTION RESULT

Black Paper White Paper

Bulb

ENERGY ACTIVITY: Energy from the Sun

When solar energy hits objects, some of the energy is reflected and some is absorbed and changed into heat. 

Some colors absorb more solar energy than others.

Step 1. Put three thermometers in a sunny place.

Step 2. Cover the bulb of one with black paper. Cover the bulb of one with white paper.

Step 3. Predict which thermometer will get the hottest. Number them 1-3, with one as the hottest.

Step 4. Wait a few minutes.

Step 5. Record your results by coloring the tubes of the thermometers.

Step 6. Look at the results and number the thermometers 1-3 with one as the hottest.

How Well Did You Predict? 
Once upon a time, a beautiful fern tree grew in a swamp. 

All day, she soaked up sunlight and stored it in her fronds. 

The sun’s energy helped her grow tall. 

The biggest frond was Fern Fossil. Every day she stretched closer to the sun. 

She was proud to be the tallest frond on the tree.

One day, the sky grew dark and a strong wind blew. The other fronds huddled together. They gave each other strength. But Fern was too high. She 

was all alone. There were no fronds tall enough to help her. 

The wind blew harder and Fern’s stem snapped. She fell from the tree into 

the dark water. Fern sank to the bottom of the swamp. She thought her 

journey was over. 

Nature had a different plan for Fern. For a long time, she lay in the swamp. More plants fell into the water. They covered Fern like a blanket. 

After many years, the water dried up and the swamp turned 

into land. Dinosaurs roamed over the earth. Fern lay under the 

ground, buried deeper and deeper.

The weight of the dirt and the heat of the earth changed Fern. 

She was no longer green. She lost her leafy shape. But she still had 

the sun’s energy stored in her.

Fern Fossil had turned into a shiny black rock full of energy. She was a piece of coal. Fern and many 

other plants were now a big seam of coal buried under the ground.

One day, a big machine dug into the earth. It took away the dirt on top of the coal. It lifted Fern 

from the earth and put her into a huge truck. She was taken to a building where she was washed, then 

put on a train. 

The train chugged through the night to a power plant. Fern was put into a 

boiler and burned. Her energy produced a lot of heat. 

The power plant used Fern’s energy to make electricity. It traveled through 

a power line to a house. A little boy turned on a light so that he could read. 

The energy that Fern had gotten from the sun millions of years ago was lighting 

the night. Fern had traveled a long way.

The Tale of Fern Fossil
1. How many live in this house (count the pillows on the beds)? _______

2. Each bathroom has two . How many are in all the bathrooms? ________

3. Each bedroom has two and each closet has one . How many in all? 

__________

4. The family room, kitchen, utility room, hall and TV/computer room each have 

one . How many are there in the whole house? _________

5. Each uses one for four hours each day. How many hours a day are they 

used in all? _________

6. Each uses ten cents ($0.10) worth of electricity per hour. How much does 

the family pay for electricity for every day? _________

7. Two take showers every day and two take baths. Each shower uses 

10 gallons of and each bath uses 20 gallons.The family also uses 20 gallons of 

a day to wash dishes. How many gallons of are used each day? _________

ENERGY ACTIVITY:
My name is Little Big Fuel. It’s a strange name, I know. Lots of people think 

I’m strange. I think I’m magical. This is my story. 

I’ve been underground for millions of years. No one knew I was there. I’m 

invisible, you can’t see me. You can’t smell me. You can’t feel me either; I’m 

a gas. I hide in rocks with petroleum and natural gas. 

Ninety years ago, Dr. Snelling found me. He named me propane, but my 

friends call me Little Big Fuel. Here’s the reason why.

When everything is normal, I’m a gas. You can’t see me, but I’m full of energy. You can burn me to make heat.

I can heat your house. I can cook your food. I can run lanterns and tractors. I can help make things 

you use everyday. I can run big machines inside buildings because I’m so clean. I can even take you 

for a ride in a hot air balloon.

All these things I do are very good. But they aren’t the thing that makes me special. This is my secret: 

you can turn me into a liquid and make me very, very small. If you squeeze me – compress me – I’ll 

turn into a liquid. 

See the big picture of me? That’s my size as a gas. The little guy is my size as a liquid. I’m 270 times 

smaller! I still have the same number of molecules and the same amount of energy. I’m just squeezed 

together. 

People squeeze me into small bottles so they can carry me with them. They 

take me camping to cook their food and light their lanterns. People put me into 

tanks on their barbecue grills.

Farmers fill big tanks with me as a liquid. I can heat their barns and houses for a 

long time. Big trucks take me to farms to fill the tanks. When I leave the tanks, 

I’m not under pressure anymore. I turn into a gas again and get big; I expand. 

Then I am burned to make heat.

That’s why I’m called Little Big Fuel. I am amazing, don’t you think?

The Tale of Little Big Fuel

LITTLE

BIG

FUEL

LITTLE

BIG

FUEL
ENERGY ACTIVITY:

Practicing Drawing to Scale

Using the larger sheet of graph paper, below, please 

draw the picture of “Little Big Fuel” that is on the 

smaller sheet of graph paper, to your left.

LITTLE

BIG

FUEL 
I’m Annie Soakley. I am a world traveler. Let me tell you about my last trip. 

It began in the Pacific Ocean. I was floating in the waves with my friends. We 

were bobbing up and down, watching the sun rise over the mountains. What 

a beautiful sight! 

The sun climbed higher in the sky. I began to get warm. I got warmer and 

warmer. Suddenly, I rose out of the water. I floated toward the sky. I grew 

bigger and bigger. My molecules got farther and farther apart. I expanded.

I didn’t look like a drop of water anymore. I was invisible. I had turned into water vapor. I had 

evaporated! I rose high into the sky. Many of my friends came with me. They had evaporated, 

too. Together, we formed a cloud. 

The wind pushed us through the sky. We sailed 

over the ocean toward land. The people on the 

beach were sad to see us. We blocked the sun. 

We passed over them and headed for the mountains. The wind kept pushing us. We reached the 

mountains as the sun set. The air on top of the 

mountains was cold. It made me cold. As I cooled, 

I grew smaller. My molecules got closer together. 

I turned into a drop of water again. I condensed.

I was too heavy for the cloud to hold me. I began falling toward the earth. I was a rain drop! My 

friends condensed, too. The weatherperson on TV called us precipitation, which is water falling 

to earth. 

 We fell into a small creek and began flowing down the mountain. 

The creek flowed into a mighty river. Gravity was pulling us down 

the mountain. We were moving very fast. We had a lot of energy. 

Suddenly, we found ourselves in a long tunnel. A machine called a 

turbine was at the end of the tunnel. We rushed through the turbine, making it spin. The turbine used our energy to make electricity.

We flowed back into the river. The river made its way through farms and towns until it reached 

the ocean. I floated out into the waves, glad to be home again. It had been an exciting trip through 

the water cycle.

 The Tale of Annie Soakley
Energy Word Puzzle

ENERGY ACTIVITY:

1 2

3 4

5

6 7

ACROSS

1 This powers our light bulbs.

3 A form of transportation that burns

	 fuel to move. (Hint: It flies.)

5 Propane turns into a liquid after 

this has been done to it.

6 A black rock full of energy.

7 In the U.S., ethanol is made from what 

plant?

DOWN

2 When a drop of water becomes 

invisible, it does this.

4 The color black does this to solar

energy.
I’m Johnny Energy Seed. I plant energy 

seeds in a big field on my farm. 

The sun shines. There is energy in the 

sun’s rays. It helps my seeds grow into 

tall plants. My plants store the sun’s 

energy in their roots, stalks, leaves and 

ears. Soon my energy plants look like 

this. 

I can use the energy in my plants for many things. I can eat the seeds for 

energy for my body. This energy will help me grow and move and think.

I can feed my energy plants to my chickens, pigs, cows and horses. The 

energy will make my animals grow big and strong.

I can hang my energy plants in my barn to dry. Then I can burn 

them in my fireplace. The energy in my plants can keep me 

warm on cold winter nights.

I can put my energy plants into a big 

container that keeps out the air. As my 

plants decay, they can make a gas that I can burn in my stove to cook 

my food.

I can also turn my energy plants into fuel for my tractor. I 

turn them into alcohol, like grapes are turned into wine. This 

alcohol fuel, called ethanol, can run my tractor.

As you can see, a seed of corn really is an energy seed. Why 

don’t you plant some corn seeds and explore the ways you can 

use the energy in the plants you grow.

The Tale of Johnny Energy Seed
The next page has an energy game. The spinner wheel can 

be cut out of this booklet. Follow instructions for placing 

a paper clip on the point of a pencil and placing the point 

of the pencil (with the paper clip) in the center of the small 

white circle in the middle of the spinner wheel. 
p

Car

ool

Run

the

dishwasher

for a bowl

and

spoon a

Put on a swe ter

stea

f

In

d o

r tu ning up

the heat

Leave the door open

while the air

conditioning

is on Ride

the 

bus

Set

the

o

th

e

erm stat

ry high

v

s ou can

o y

w

i

e

s

ar shorts

ide n

L a

ur

e ve yo

comp ter run

ing

u

n

l

h

a l nig

t

Turn off

the 

lights

Op th shade

nd

en

e

s a

use sunlight

inst d of a l mp ea a

Leave the 

TV on in the

living room

while you eat

in the

kitchen

Switch

to CFL

light

bulbs

E

N

D

SPIN AGAIN

Used the

window to

look inside 

the oven 

instead

of opening it.

S

T

A

R

T

RULES: The oldest person goes first. Everyone should have a paper clip, eraser, a piece of 

paper with their name on it or something else small to use as their playing piece.

Now, spin.

 • If the paper clip dial lands on a conservation tip, move forward two 

 spaces.

 • If the paper clip dial lands on something that uses energy, move back one 

 space.

The first player to come to the end wins the game.

This is the spinner for this board game. Please cut out spinner 

from this booklet. Place a paper clip on the point of a pencil 

and place the point of the pencil (with the paper clip) in the 

small white circle in the middle of the spinner. Fling the paper 

clip around. It spins really well. When the paper clip stops 

spinning, it will land on one of the sections of the spinner. 

Read the comment and act, accordingly.

arp o C o l

Swi

C

tch

To FL

Light

bulbs

th

R

e

un

dishwasher

forabowl

s

a

p

n

o

d

on

P t s u n a weate o r

instead of

tu i g rn n up

e th h at e

Leav

w

e the door open

hile the air

conditioning

Ride is on

th

B

e

us

Set

h

t

e

he

rmost t

h

at

v

o

ery igh

you can

w

s

\ s

in

e

s

a

i

r

de

short

u e v o L a e y r

c put un ng om er r ni

a nig t ll h

Turn off

the

Lights

pen he es O t shad and

Us sun t

inste

e

ad of

lig

a

h

lamp

Leave the

TV on in the

w

l

h

iv

i

i

l

n

e

g

yo

ro

u

o

e

m

at

in the

kitchen

Pencil 

Paper Clip
Tornado

hit.

GO BACK

TO START

Didn’t

leave water

running

while

brushing

teeth.

SPIN AGAIN

Earthquake

hit. GO BACK

5 SPACES

a

s

W lked in tead

. of

drove

MOVE AHEAD

5 SPAC

SE
 

Visit The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 

 Energy Kids website at:

 http://www.eia.gov/kids

 Visit The National Energy Education Development 

 Project at:

 www.need.org