Mysterious Matter

We've been studying matter.  After the Universe Story, we begin our study of science every year with matter and force & motion.  The children need the foundation of these concepts in order to understand (and speak intelligently about) other science strands.  In order to discuss the water cycle or compare the inner planets and the outer planets, we need to understand solid, liquid, and gas.  To understand why the planets revolve around the sun, we need to first understand gravity and momentum.






To begin our study of matter, we read What is the World Made Of?.  We poured a liter of water from one container to another, including two different cylinders, a rectangular prism, and a cube.  

Next, we heated water and observed as it changed from solid (ice) to liquid to gas.  We invited volunteer molecule actors to present Matter Molecule Theater, standing together very closely and just slightly jiggling as a solid, slipping past one another as a liquid, and then bouncing all over the room as a gas.  

The children are working individually to classify a box of matter samples as solid, liquid, or gas and record their results in bar graphs.  

Children are also working individually to classify a box of solids as rigid, elastic, or plastic.  












For our next investigation, a few hard-working helpers combined solutions to create slime.  

The children then worked together in cooperative groups to investigate the properties of matter samples that are difficult to classify: shaving cream, sand, toothpaste, and slime.  



Every child scientist maintains a science notebook with records of his/her thinking about the investigations and experiments.  For each challenging matter sample, the children wrote in their notebooks a claim as to whether it was solid or liquid, supported by evidence.  

“I claim toothpaste is _____ because __________________.”  












“I claim sand is _____ because __________________.” 










“I claim slime is _____ because __________________.” 


“I claim shaving cream is _____ because __________________.” 

Many of the matter samples had some characteristics of a solid and some characteristics of a liquid.  This lead to some heated scientific discussion!  

"9-14-16  Yesterday we had an investigation.  Each group has five jobs: the scribe, illustrator, materials manager, facilitator, and clean-up coordinator.  We used matter that was very hard to classify.  We used sand, toothpaste, shaving cream, and slime.  They were hard to classify because there were reasons for both solids and liquids." by TC, 1st grade

There's a Book for That!
What is the World Made Of? by K. Zoehfeld
Kids Discover: Matter
Kids Discover: Solids & Liquids
Kids Discover: Changes
Kids Discover: Chemistry
Kids Discover: Atoms

Teacher Resources
Matter: Solids, Liquids, & Gases (GEMS guide)
Oobleck: What Do Scientists Do? (GEMS guide)
Changes (STC Teacher's Guide)
Solids and Liquids (STC Teacher's Guide)


Explore More
This would be a good time to explore the Matter Factory and Invention Convention exhibits at the Children’s Museum or check out the Chemistry Hall at the Museum of Natural Science.