I just love starting the year with matter. It's a fun unit, and it helps me get to know each child in a fun way. At the end of last year, I asked my students what they loved about second grade, and many of them mentioned the kick off to this unit!
We start by putting a Mento mint into a bottle of Coke/Diet Coke. The resulting "explosion" is fun and memorable! Then, we talk about the different states of matter we're observing. This builds curiosity from the scholars and helps us start wondering what happens when we combine different things. I also love that it gives us an opportunity to talk about safety - You never know what will happen when you combine two objects, so ask first!
Next, we repeat the experiment with a student dropping the mint into the bottle. I cover it with a balloon, so we can observe the gas being emitted from the reaction. A word to the wise: We didn't sit far enough apart in our circle this year, and a couple students had a sweet surprise sprayed on them! Thankfully, they though it was hilarious!
Then, we explore the various states of matter. My young friends always seem to enjoy investigating the liquids the most.
An interesting misconception came up this year. Upon investigating, students decided that a distinguishing characteristic of liquids is that they are flexible. When they arrived at the solids station, we had an awesome conversation about the flexibility of rubber bands. Through questioning and conversation, they were able to distinguish between the two and create a more accurate definition of liquids before we used a class definition. I think the experience was much more meaningful than it would have been if I had given the definitions first.
We'll continue this week with classifying matter in various ways. I created classification bags (only some of the items are pictured below - more will be added in the classroom), and we'll use them to see how many different ways we can sort matter. We'll also talk about why it's helpful to be able to classify in different ways.
We'll also practice classifying matter by relative mass using this interactive notebook page (click if you'd like a copy). A vocabulary sort and activity are also included. These are particularly helpful for English Language Learners.
On the left side of our notebooks, we'll draw and describe what we observe when comparing the mass of a traditional golf ball and a plastic golf ball. We'll also classify rocks, sort solids, liquids & gasses, and classify matter using flexibility. It's going to be a blast!
