Hot or Cold?

Start with something students can look at or think about: a photo, a short video, a jar on the windowsill, or a question like "what do you already know about heat energy?" Then let them work through the worksheet on their own or with a partner, keeping a word bank or anchor chart in view so the vocabulary stays available. When you review, ask students how they knew, and let them point to the part of the diagram or reading that told them. These heat energy worksheets work well as a lead in before an investigation, as a way to capture what students noticed afterward, or as review before an assessment.

These heat energy worksheets for 1st grade give students a clear, visual way to work through one of the big ideas in energy sound and light. Students label diagrams, sort and classify examples, read short explanations, and answer questions that ask them to say why, not just what. Each page keeps the science vocabulary front and center so students leave with the words they need to talk about heat energy accurately. Working through heat energy on paper gives 1st grade students something concrete to hold onto before, during, or after the hands on part of a lesson.

This worksheet is designed for 1st Grade students (Ages 6-7), aligned to NGSS standard K-PS3-1. That standard sits in the kindergarten band, so treat this worksheet as an early introduction rather than standards practice for this grade. Sunlight warming surfaces is a Kindergarten standard (K-PS3-1); this Grade 1 worksheet revisits it. It can also be used as review for early students at the next grade level or as an introduction for advanced students.

Yes. This worksheet works for homeschool, classroom, and tutoring settings. Print individual pages for targeted practice, or print the full set as a packet. Works great as a morning warm-up, independent center activity, or fast-finisher task.

Two things. First, coloring eight objects red for hot or blue for cold. Then two arrow tasks showing which way heat travels, from a campfire to a mug and from the sun to a snowman.

Always from the hotter thing to the colder one, which is the rule printed at the top. The mug next to a fire gets hotter, the snowman in the sun melts. Both arrows point the same way for the same reason.

That worksheet asks which objects melt. This one is about the direction heat travels, which is the underlying cause. Melting is one thing heat does.

First graders learn that heat is a type of energy that can move from warmer to cooler objects and that it comes from sources like the sun, fire, and electrical appliances. They explore simple examples of heat causing changes, such as melting ice or cooking food, and practice identifying safe and unsafe heat sources.

Heat energy is typically introduced in Grade 1 during a physical science unit on energy, often alongside light and sound. Teachers connect it to weather science, cooking, and seasonal temperature changes to make the concept feel immediate and relevant.

On a sunny day, place a dark object and a light object in the sun and ask your child to predict and observe which gets hotter. Complete the worksheet together and connect your experiment to the heat energy concept.