Social studiesGrade 1ages 6–7
🌤️ Hot and cold outside
A young child can imagine that the land itself disappears when the weather turns cold; this lesson separates what a season actually changes, the air and the clothes, from what stays exactly the same, the ground itself.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- Outside it can be hot in summer and cold in winter.
- We change clothes with the heat: a coat in the cold, light clothes in the heat.
- The land itself does not vanish. The hill and the street stay.
- The season changes air and clothes, it does not swallow the place.
The mistake most kids make here
Thinking the land vanishes when it is cold, or that clothes are unrelated to weather.
Try one question
When summer turns to winter, outside…
Summer to winter
- it usually gets colder
- the land vanishes
- the sun goes out forever
Answer
it usually gets colder — Yes. What changes is the warmth in the air.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: Say what changes with the season, and what does not vanish.
How to help at home
Look outside together across different seasons if you can, or use photos of the same yard or park in summer and winter, and ask what changed and what stayed put.
Point out that clothes change with the temperature, a coat in the cold, light clothes in the heat, and ask your child to help pick the right clothes for today's actual weather.
Walk to the same spot, a tree, a step, a corner of the yard, in different seasons if you can, and confirm together that the hill or the street is still there; only the air around it changed.
A good sign they've got it: they can say what changes between summer and winter, air, clothes, and what doesn't, the land itself, without needing you to list it for them.
Questions parents ask
- Why would a young child think the land disappears in winter?
- At six, big changes like snow covering a yard can feel like the yard itself is gone. Walking to the same spot in different weather and confirming it's still there helps settle this concretely.
- What's a good way to talk about the seasons with a first grader?
- Ground it in what they can feel and see: is it hot or cold today, and what clothes match that. Keep the focus on air and clothing, which change, rather than abstract ideas.
- Does the sun really go out in winter, like a child might imagine?
- No, the sun keeps shining every day; what changes is how much warmth reaches a particular place at a particular time of year, not whether the sun is working at all.
- How does Maya teach this?
- Maya asks what happens outside when summer turns to winter and offers real options, so the child has to separate what actually changes from what stays the same.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
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Sources: Israeli Ministry of Education – Homeland, society and civics curriculum, elementary (in Hebrew)