Third Grade
Worksheets
How Do Toasters Work?
Did you have toast for breakfast this morning? Toasting dries out the water that is inside the bread. That makes the bread crunchy. Toasting browns the bread on the outside. It makes the bread hot. Many people enjoy toast for breakfast. There are many ways to toast bread. You can toast it over a campfire. You can put it into the oven. You can toast it on a grill. Chances are, your bread was toasted in a small appliance we call a toaster. It makes toast automatically!
A toaster is a small electrical appliance. Toasters have been around for about one hundred years. You plug the toaster's electrical cord into an electrical socket in your home. The electric current flows through the wires in your house, out the socket, through the wires in your toaster cord, and into the toaster. The appliance changes electrical energy into heat energy. There are small wires inside your toaster. These are called the heating elements. The wires heat up. They are on each side. This can toast both sides of the bread at the same time. The heating elements glow red or orange because they are very hot. This is what toasts your bread.
A pop-up toaster automatically turns the heat off. It makes your bread pop up so you know when it is done. That way you can eat it while it is hot! Toasters have a special switch inside. The switch is made of two kinds of metals. One kind of metal heats up quickly. The other metal heats much slower. This causes the switch to bend. The bending of the switch turns off the electricity and triggers a spring that makes the toast pop up.
