Water Evaporation
The class can perform a test to investigate how heat from the Sun can evaporate water on Earth so that it forms a gas. Get the children suggest how they might increase the speed of evaporation by lining bowls filled with water using different materials such as aluminum foil or black plastic bags. The class can identify the variables that will stay constant such as the amount of water, placement of bowls and amount of sunshine and the variable that will change such as the materials lining the bowls to ensure a fair test. Get the children to keep a record of how much water has evaporated every thirty minutes by measuring the liquid remaining in each bowl. The class can present their findings using a graph to track changes to water levels and writing explanations as to why certain materials increased the rate of water evaporation.

Shadow Lengths
Using the power of the Sun, the class can identify and record when the Sun might produce the longest and shortest shadows on the playground during one school day. The children can place a stick inside a bucket of sand to leave out on the playground. They can then measure the length of the shadow of the stick at staggered intervals throughout the school day. The class can practise recording the length of the shadows using measurement skills for centimetres and millimetres. The children can use line graphs to illustrate changes to the length of shadows created by the Sun. They can write sentences to explain why the shadows change in length throughout one day.

Material Changes
The class can also investigate how the power of the Sun might affect materials that have been left out in the sunshine. Get the children to stick strips of different materials to a cardboard rectangle such as coloured paper, aluminum foil, black plastic etc. They can leave the cardboard rectangles in a sunny location on the playground. Get the class to write sentences to estimate how they think each material will change after a number of hours in the hot sunshine. At the end of the school day, the children can collect their cardboard rectangles from the playground and write sentences about how each material has been changed after being left outside in the sunshine. The class can explain how certain materials have changed or remained the same based on their individual properties.

Plant Growth
Using the school grounds, the class can perform a test to explore how the sun can help plants to grow and develop. The class can place some small potted plants in a tray to leave in the school grounds. One of the plants can be covered with a small cardboard box so that the sunlight cannot reach the plant. Select some children to visit the plants each day so that they can be watered. The class can write sentences to predict what might happen to the plants over the course of week. After several days, bring the plants back into the classroom. The children can draw and label illustrations to record how the plants have changed with and without sunlight.