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There are many lessons that lead to the study of Properties of Matter. In second grade, students are expected to be able to know how to change the properties of matter. In order to do this, students need to be well versed in what the properties of matter are, and know the different vocabulary to describe the different properties such as color, shape, size, and texture. Integrating art lessons in color, texture, and sculpture (3D shape) will help students to build their vocabulary for the different properties of matter. Math lessons in measurement (light/heavy, long/short, wide/thin, tall/short, more/most, less/least, full/empty/almost full/half full,) give students hands-on opportunities to gain a better practical understanding of ways to measure different objects. It is also important to give students real-life opportunities to create tally charts, tables, and bar graphs with the data that they are collecting.
Creating anchor charts with the students as they explore and learn about the different properties of matter is important.
When completed, the students can refer to it when they are trying to describe their observations. One of my favorite charts is found at the following site:
This is a list of basic vocabulary for kindergarten students. It would be a great start to begin
first and second grade class lessons with this chart and expand on the properties of each.
For example, in describing colors, students can differentiate between light, dark, bright, shiny, pale, pastel,
etc. Adding in the metallic colors of gold, silver, and bronze is exciting for them too! I have used my son's collection of Hot Wheels cars in class investigations about the Properties of Matter because they come in so many different colors, tints, shades, and designs. I have also collected all different kinds of Easter Eggs as materials for an activity of sorting them by color, design (spotted, striped, zig-zag, camouflage, floral), metallic, iridescent, size, etc. Another activity to help students differentiate between different kinds of the same materials is cotton puffs: balls, squares, large, small, quilted, etc.
You can also collect different shapes of dry pasta for students to sort by shape and size. The possibilities are endless!
Another way to connect students to the properties of matter is to show how the five senses can used to
describe them. The following anchor chart is an example:
A fun way to sort 2D and 3D edible shapes and figures can be found at:
Temperatures can be better understood with this anchor chart:
Giving students an opportunity to record their observations is critical for them to feel like they are young scientists.
I found the following template at the site below:
There is a link to this "freebie". I like how the younger students can check off or circle the different properties that describe what they are observing. I would also include a page for them to draw and label what they observed. Sentence stems are developmentally necessary for young scientists.
An engaging lesson from an Engineering website has students describe solids by their properties:
A sample of the Touch and Discover handout:
An excellent site that has interactive simulations of the properties of different materials include:
Sorting and Using Materials (learning about waterproof and bendy materials)
Grouping and Changing Materials (learning about wood, glass, metal, and rubber)
A culminating task that has students finding examples of different properties of matter can be found at the following site:
When students are able to use a ruler and a scale to measure objects, the properties of matter can be distinguished into the categories of observable properties and measurable properties. Size can become more specific in terms of length, mass, and capacity. A link to a site that has a graphic organizer for observable/measurable properties can be found below:
A more in-depth study of the Properties of Matter can include investigations into:
1. float/sink
2. absorption
3. solubility (does it dissolve?)
4. magnetism
My Pinterest Sites have many links to experiments about these properties and others. You need to have a Pinterest account to view these boards. It is free.
I have attached a Power Point at the bottom of this subpage that can be used as an assessment for 2nd grade students, or as an introduction or closure for a unit on changing the properties of matter. Some of the slides are pictured below:
Texture Lesson
I have also attached two lesson plans below, one for first grade and one for second grade. They essentially have the same activities, but have different language arts standards addressed. Students need to understand what the different textures are, and the many vocabulary words needed to describe them. There are additional attachments below that go with the lesson. I had the opportunity to teach the 2nd grade lesson to my class, and my reflection is written below.
Lesson Plan: Texture using multiple Learning Styles
Caption: Attached is my lesson plan that has students learning through their visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic learning styles.
In this vocabulary lesson, students learn about different textures through images they see and objects that they can touch. Students work in groups of three to categorize textures as pleasant, unpleasant, or other. Their growth is assessed by their pre/post assessment that shows how many new texture words they learned. After the initial lesson, students have the opportunity to work during center time to create collaborative Texture Boards in either tactile, visual, or aural formats. Shadow Puppet EDU is an app that is used for students to add their descriptive narratives to a slide show of pre-selected and labeled texture photos.
Reflection:
I had many hands-on activities planned for this lesson and my students needed it! Thankfully, they do well with working with manipulatives and hands-on materials. I appreciate how well the students participated in this lesson with their sharing of texture words. Having an EA and another classroom teacher in the class was very helpful because they helped to supply new texture words or prompts to the students to get them thinking about different words.
As I was teaching the lesson, I changed up a few sections of my lesson plan. In order to get more involvement from everyone, I had the students take out their post it notes and write their choice of items that would be described as smooth, rough, hard, soft, ridged, woven, jagged, and bumpy. I had four table groups and each one was given two words (i.e. smooth and rough) and had the chance to think-pair-share and write their own objects (i.e. desk top = smooth, brick=rough) on their post-its. Due to the fact that I pair up students differently than their current teacher does, there was a lot of confusion. Even though all of the students liked writing their ideas on post-it notes, the all wrote the same words (the examples that I gave them!). I actually think that this lesson is perfect as a stand-alone lesson. It taps into their divergent/convergent thinking skills. I think I planned too many activities into this lesson. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would break it into about 3 shorter lessons and give the students time to touch all different kinds of textures and connect new vocabulary words to differentiate similar textures. For example, there are many words that can describe a bumpy texture. Is it more pokey? Spikey? Nubby? Does it depend on what the material is made of? I was wondering about how children would differentiate words like hairy, furry, fluffy, puffy, etc. My big “aha” is that second graders don’t have all the texture words in their lexicon, and they need to experience the textures and read about how materials are described in order to build their vocabulary. It is a year long, even life-long, pursuit! My important take-away is to build on this lesson and continue to have my students be texture word hunters as they experience different textures and read about them.
Another way that I would teach this lesson differently is that I would front-load their exposure to texture words. I would have them label the actual items or pages in the baby texture books with the words that they thought best described the textures. Since they are still at the concrete stage of learning about texture words, this would have helped considerably! Then we would need to take some time to talk about the words they chose, and then I could give them other synonyms that would describe their words better. This could also be a teachable moment for using a thesaurus.
I was very pleased with the student response to this lesson. They were engaged in the hands on activities where they were touching the textures in the baby books and in the bag of textures. I think their response was so positive because I differentiated this lesson for visual, kinesthetic, and oral learners. They worked well in their triad groups and followed the instructions for what their responsibilities were. All students showed growth in their post assessment of texture words. The next step is to build our classroom texture boards and continue to build on them for the remainder of the year. I want them to be interactive texture boards that they refer to often, not just a pretty project on the wall.
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