Showing posts with label matter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matter. Show all posts

 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!

(affiliate link)

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.


We recorded our observations, and he made a hypothesis about what oobleck is... a "soliquid." LOL! :)


After we watched a video explaining oobleck we made our conclusion!


All of the labs, plans and paper materials are in this 2nd grade Next Gen Matter Unit!




Food always make learning better!  And food is the perfect medium for learning about matter.

My kiddo and I had a blast learning about the states of matter and enjoying a root beer float!  Here's a look at this engaging, Next Gen Science aligned experiment.

What You'll Need

For this states of matter science lab, you'll need...
*clear plastic cups
*clear spoons
*root beer (these small mini-cans would be perfect for parters or individual kiddos to share!)
*vanilla ice-cream
*ice-cream scoop

Science Lab Steps

Before this experiment, we front loaded our knowledge of the states of matter ome pebblego articles, and through sorting and observing properties of matter.  We also sorted objects by their state of matter.

On science lab day, we set out all of our materials and talked about which were solids, liquids and gases.  We recorded our ideas on our lab sheet.  Then, we predicted whether the root beer and ice cream would change.  We wrote our predictions.

Then, it was time to cook up the float.  You will want to do these steps altogether so that partners don't work ahead and ruin the fun for someone else close by.  So, everyone makes the float together.

We added the ice-cream and observed any changes....and then licked the scoop! :)

No changes...yet.

Then, we added the root beer and observed any changes.

BAM! Changes!  We loved seeing the liquid fizz up into a gas!  We recorded our results in the root beer column.



Then, we let the float sit for about an hour.  While we were waiting, we drew and labeled the float.

Then we observed the changes in the ice-cream!

Oh yeah, and while we waited on the ice-cream to melt we made our own floats to eat!

If you are doing this in the classroom, just save your ice cream float for an hour and let the kids eat theirs!  You can all observe the extra float after an hour.

You can find this experiment and tons more activities in this Next Gen Science Matter unit.
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