Matter Experiments

Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you some of the fun things we did to learn about matter! It is my best-selling unit on TpT and definitely one of my favorite things I've created. The kids have so much fun learning about the different states of matter. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the written activities we did, but you can check out my previous post from a few years ago to see those.

We started off the week talking about the different states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. We identified things in our classroom and completed a sort.

My school tries to do several field trips for each quarter so we went to a local burger/ice cream fast food place to see matter change in action. The kids first got to examine liquid custard turn into solid custard. They also got to see how waffle cones are made and explore the freezer in the back of the store. They loved it!

Oh, and of course, they got their own little bowl of custard. YUM!

My favorite thing about my unit is the two fun experiments I like to do with the kids. First, we do an experiment about how liquids can change. I had the kids choose between strawberry and apple juice and we poured the juice in cups.

Then I placed the cups in the freezer and the kids wrote down their hypothesis of what they think will happen. The next day, we took the cups out and found that the liquid had turned to a solid. (Popsicles!!)

Our final experiment was examining what changes a solid can go through. We created four groups to see what is the fastest way to melt an ice cube. The kids each wrote down their hypothesis of what they thought would be the fastest. 

Then I had a group use the sun to melt it:

Another group used their hands:

Another group blew on the ice cube:

And finally, my last group just placed it on the table and watched it melt. (Poor guys! haha) We timed each group and found that using your hands is the fastest way to melt an ice cube! 

If you liked any of these activities, please click the picture below to check out my unit!