Student slideshow: English | Spanish

Teacher printout: English & Spanish

These readings are free with registration on ReadWorks, a nonprofit committed to providing teachers with research-proven, Common-Core-aligned readings.

• Three short readings about the sun
• Cloudy and Sunny contrasts what it feels like in the sun and the shade.
• Stay Safe in the Sun describes how to avoid sunburn.

• Design a Place in the Shade: The Cool Cows activity gets your students thinking about how they could build something to make shade. Take the activity further by having students draw the shade structure they’d like to build. If you have time, materials, and a sunny day, you can give your students the chance to make and test a physical model of their structure. For instructions on how to do it, we suggest this activity on Better Lesson, a site where educators can connect and share curriculum.

• Where Is It Warmer?: Take a walk outside on a sunny day and challenge students to find the warmest and coldest spots they can. Encourage them to feel different kinds of surfaces in the sun and in the shade. Is the pavement hotter in the sun or in the shade? Check out other surfaces — the blacktop, bricks, rocks, metal, soil, sand. Which is the hottest? Which is the coolest? If you have time, compare the temperatures of the two spots using ice cubes. An ice cube will melt faster in the hotter spot.

• Hot or Not?: Now that you know where it's too hot to walk barefoot, you can also figure out when to sit if you want to cool off on a hot day.

You can elaborate student learning and engagement with Mystery Science mini-lessons.

• Can animals get a sunburn? In this mini-lesson, students learn about different ways animals protect themselves from the Sun when shade structures aren’t around.

If you are in an NGSS state, this mini-lesson supports the DCI PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer