Warm, Cool, Cold — Temperature Jar Match

A home version of the Montessori thermic bottles. The child pairs up jars of water by temperature, using hands alone, then lines them up from coldest to warmest.

  1. Prepare six identical lidded jars or small metal bottles (spice jars, baby-food jars, or small steel water bottles all work). Fill two with comfortably warm tap water, two with room-temperature water, and two with cold water from the fridge. Close the lids and dry the outsides.
  2. Mix the jars up on a tray. Explain that they look the same, so only hands can tell them apart.
  3. Show the technique. Wrap a whole hand around one jar, hold still, and count to three. Then feel another the same way.
  4. The child picks a jar, then tests the others until they find its temperature twin, and stands the pair together.
  5. When all three pairs are made, order them coldest → warmest and name each one — cold, cool, warm.
  6. Test each other. One person closes their eyes and is handed a jar — “Which family does it belong to?”

Variation: hold a jar against a cheek or the inside of a wrist and notice where the temperature feels strongest. Or go on a temperature hunt around the home — the window glass, a wooden spoon, a metal tap, a sun-warmed cushion.

Requirements

  • Space: A table near the kitchen
  • Surface: A tray with a towel on it to catch drips
  • Materials: 6 identical lidded jars or small metal bottles, warm, room-temperature, and fridge-cold water, a towel
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child
  • Supervision: Close — adult prepares and tests the water temperatures and stays present

Rationale & Objective

Temperature is named alongside texture and pressure in this skill area, yet it is rarely practised on purpose. Montessori gave it its own material — the thermic bottles, pairs of metal containers holding water at graded temperatures — on the principle that isolating one quality at a time sharpens attention to it. The technique matters. Research on haptic exploration (Lederman & Klatzky) shows that people judge temperature best with still, whole-hand contact, so the game quietly teaches a child to slow down and hold. Learning to label what the skin feels (cool, lukewarm, too hot) is practical for bath time, food, weather, and dressing, and it supports safety, since a child who notices and names “hot” pulls away sooner and can tell an adult. It also gives children who react strongly to water temperature when washing a calm way to explore that sensation.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: touches jars briefly with fingertips; tells cold from warm only; calls everything “hot” or “cold”
  • Developing: holds each jar for a few seconds; pairs the warm and the cold jars correctly but is unsure about the room-temperature pair
  • Proficient: makes all three pairs and orders them coldest to warmest; uses “cold,” “cool,” and “warm” accurately
  • Advanced: manages four temperature levels; identifies a jar’s family with eyes closed from a single hold; notices and comments on temperatures in daily life (“the bath is cooler than yesterday”)

Safety Notes

  • Warm means bath-warm, no hotter than about 38–40°C. Use tap water, never water from a kettle, and test every warm jar on the inside of your own wrist before the child touches it
  • Make sure lids are tight, and choose plastic or metal containers if glass is likely to be dropped on a hard floor
  • Use fridge-cold water, not jars straight from the freezer; prolonged contact with frozen surfaces is uncomfortable and can hurt skin
  • Water temperatures drift toward room temperature within 10–15 minutes, so keep the game short and refill if the pairs become impossible to tell apart
  • A child who seems not to notice temperatures that others find clearly hot or cold, or who is extremely distressed by mildly warm or cool water, should be mentioned to a pediatrician or occupational therapist

Hints

  • Playfulness: tell a Goldilocks story — Papa Bear’s jars are too cold, Mama Bear’s too warm, Baby Bear’s just right — and return each jar to its bear
  • Sustain interest: swap jars for other carriers — warm and cool damp flannels, spoons kept in the fridge and on the counter, stones left in the sun and in the shade
  • Common mistake: making the temperatures too close together on the first try. Start with a big, obvious gap and only two levels if needed
  • Limited space: play at bath time with two cups of water, one warmer and one cooler than the bath, and ask which is which
  • Cross-domain: read a child-safe thermometer and compare numbers (numeracy, science); talk about what we wear in cold and warm weather (self-care); order by more and less (math language)
  • Progression: two levels (cold, warm) → three levels → four levels with smaller gaps → eyes closed → judging with the wrist or cheek → estimating everyday temperatures before touching

Sources

  • Montessori, M. (1912). The Montessori Method — education of the thermic sense
  • Montessori Sensorial Area — Thermic Bottles and Thermic Tablets
  • Lederman, S.J. & Klatzky, R.L. (1987). “Hand movements: a window into haptic object recognition.” Cognitive Psychology, 19(3), 342–368
  • Ayres, A.J. (1979/2005). Sensory Integration and the Child (25th anniv. ed.). Western Psychological Services
  • American Occupational Therapy Association (2020). Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2) — sensory functions including temperature and pressure