Properties of Matter

This week we learned about the properties of matter.  We've already learned that everything is made of matter and distinguished the difference between the molecules in a solid, liquid, and gas.  The students had a lot of fun acting out the tightly packed slow moving molecules in a solid, the more spread out molecules of a liquid, and the highly energetic molecules in a gas.

The properties of matter is what makes everything different from each other.  From taste, to sound, to texture, and size, and much more.  We explored the properties of a trail mix to document the different properties we observed in a pretzel, marshmallow, M&M, and a goldfish cracker.

On Friday we took it a step further and focused on density.  This can be a tough topic to completely understand as a young student.  We defined it as how much matter is packed into an item.  An example was given of an empty car.  The car was then filled with a whole bunch of kids.  That car is now more dense.

We learned that more dense items will be heavier than less dense items.  Using this concept, we made a rainbow in a jar.  We had to layer the liquids based on most to least dense.  The last layer is the trickiest because it's very easy for the olive oil and the rubbing alcohol to mix.  The students loved putting our rainbow together and watching the layers form!

They want to try it again on Monday!  I will send home directions with the kids in case anyone wants to give it a try at home.