Year 5 Changing States of Matter

Introduction:

Our Year 5 topic Thursday, was all about materials, their properties and changing states of matter. We looked at different methods of changing a solid into a liquid, a liquid into a gas, a gas into a liquid and a liquid into a solid. We also learnt about reversible and irreversible changes and investigate if it was possible to separate a range of mixtures and if it was we looked at how we would do this. Throughout the day, we enjoyed taking part in some drama, investigations and discussions.

It was a great day that was enjoyed by everyone.

By the end of the unit the children learnt:

● to compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties

● that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and how to recover a substance form a solution

● to use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating

● that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes

● that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda

Key words used:

materials, properties, hard, soft, soluble, insoluble, transparent, opaque, conduct, conductor, thermal, electrical, dissolve, solution, filter, sieve, evaporate, mix

solid, liquid, gas, reversible, irreversible

Writing opportunities:

At the start of the day the children were introduced to the key words and were asked to practise their spellings. Throughout the day we added to our list of words and used them in our write up of the final investigation.

Finally, the children carried out an investigation, which required them to seperate different mixtures using a variety of proceesses: using magnets, sieves, evaporation and filters. Look at our work.