2nd Grade Matter Science Labs

I love a good, corny joke. That's what of the main reasons I love teaching matter.

What's the matter with you?

Science matters.

Does it matter?

I'm here all day, ya'll! But seriously, I do love teaching matter during our 2nd grade homeschool time... and not just because of the corny jokes. There's a lot of opportunity for hands-on science labs about the states of matter and matter properties. Let's take a look at a couple of my favorite labs for the states of matter and their properties!

States of Matter

We started off this unit with the book, What is the World Made Of? I love this book because it's written in a kid-friendly, easy to understand way and it's easy for kids to connect to!

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As we read, we stopped after each state and charted it. Once the book finished talking about gases, we stopped reading. We will read the 2nd half of the book when we start talking about changes in matter.

Once we finished charting the states, we sorted objects into their states.

The next day, we learned that all matter is built with atoms. And the arrangement of the atoms matters. Get it? Okay, okay, I'm done with the corny jokes. Maybe! :)

We watched a video about atoms and then built a solid, liquid and gas with "atoms." And we ate a few along the way...

Properties of Matter

Once we had a good understanding of the states of matter, we were ready to observe some objects and talk about their properties.

This was also a good chance to review our recent work with sensory details and not just writing that an object feels "good."

Oobleck Lab

We ended the week with Oobleck, because...how can you learn about matter and NOT make oobleck? We read Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Then we made oobleck and ~~played with it~~ observed its properties.