Mad about Matter

The past few weeks in science we've been madly learning all about matter! We began  our unit making flip books to learn the 3 stages of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. We wrote about the properties of each type, such as its mass and volume. Students used Cheerios to represent molecule placement in each type of matter, noting solids have the most tightly packed molecules and gases have the least...

Next, students learned how matter goes through physical and chemical changes. We classified picture cards as physical or chemical changes on a whiteboard chart and watched videos about these 2 types of changes such as Scholastic Study Jams Physical and Chemical Changes

The class also conducted its own experiments to create physical and chemical changes. During our "Magic Milk" experiment we added food coloring to milk...

Then, we then added a few drops of dish detergent to the mixture and watched in amazement a chemical reaction occurring...

 Students learned milk contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and small droplets of fat. The fat and proteins are super sensitive to change so when the dishwashing liquid was added the chemical reaction occurred, which was evident when the milk and dish detergent swirled around, pushing the food coloring to the edge of the plate.

We also conducted physical and chemical changes in Science Lab, such as combining baking soda and vinegar to make balloons blow up...

and mixing ingredients like Borax to make "gak"...

    Happy learning!