What's the Matter?

This week we have been talking about matter. What is matter, what forms does matter take, and how can matter change. We decided that we wanted to find different ways to make water change from a liquid into a solid. After much discussion, the kids decided they wanted to put one bag of water in the room, one bag in the fridge, and one bag in the freezer. So early in the day, we filled up our bags and put them into their assigned place. The kids went to their seats and made predictions in their science journals. We waited all day ~ the kids were so excited!! We came back together and made our predictions as a class. The students not only had to make the prediction but also give an explanation as to their thinking (just like he/she did in the journal).

Then it was time to find out if our predictions were correct. First we looked at our room bag. The kids were happy to find that most of them did not vote for the room.

Next was the bag from the fridge. WOW...it was cold...but it wasn't frozen! Some kids wondered if we left it in there until Monday that it would eventually turn to ice so we decided we would do it just to see what happens.

Finally we pulled out the freezer bag. The kids cheered when they saw the bag had frozen into a solid block.

When we were done making our observations, the kids had to make some conclusions as to why the water in the room and the water in the fridge had not frozen. We added this to our chart.

The kids finally returned to their seats and wrote their individual conclusions in their journals. At the end of the workshop, we decided we would think about how we could change our liquid to another type of matter. Make sure you talk to your child about the three forms of matter.