Description

What our States of Matter lesson plan includes

Lesson Objectives and Overview: States of Matter teaches students how to define and identify the three main states in which matter exists. Students will discuss solids, liquids, and gases and be able to list the traits and properties of each category. This lesson is for students in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. This lesson requires some prep work on your part. Prepare four samples each of solids, liquids, and gases (numbered 1 through 12) for students to use during the activity.

Options for Lesson

Teacher Notes

The paragraph on this page provides a little extra information on what you can expect from the lesson. You could also teach this lesson at the same time as or before a lesson photosynthesis. Use the lines to write out your thoughts as you prepare.

STATES OF MATTER LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

What Is Matter?

The States of Matter lesson plan has two pages of content. It begins by stating that God created everything, including humans. He did not name everything, though. Instead, He gave the power to name things to the people He created. So mankind gave a specific name to all of God’s other creations.

Scientists have done the same thing with the things God created. The general term that encompasses everything in the universe is matter. To clarify this point, the lesson explains that the students take up space. Their desks take up space. Water and air do too. Everything that takes up space was created by God and is called matter. Therefore, matter is all around us.

Some matter we can hold in our hands. But there are other things, like air, that we can’t hold. God is responsible for all the matter in the universe, whether it exists on earth or somewhere else in space. He is, therefore, the source of all matter. And all matter comes in three main forms: solid, liquid, or gas.

Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Solid matter has a definite shape. A solid can be hard, smooth, rough, or soft. It can come in all different sizes, and people can usually hold it. Examples of solids include desks, chairs, mountains, bread, windows, tissues, paper, cars, pencils, ice cubes, phones, and clothes.

Liquids, on the other hand, do not have a definite shape. A liquid will take the shape of the container it’s in, and it will first fill the bottom of the container. Liquids usually have a smooth surface and no specific size. Water, milk, orange juice, chocolate syrup, soda, cough medicine, vinegar, and cleaning fluids are all examples of liquids.

The last state of matter is gas. Gases are often totally invisible, and we cannot necessarily feel them. They have no shape or regular size. Gases can fill any-sized container. And they have no surface and move easily. Some examples include oxygen in the air, propane gas for a grill, helium in a balloon, fumes from a car, and the gas from an oven.

Matter in the Bible

Students will learn that it’s hard to move through a solid, easier to move through a liquid, and easiest to move through a gas. However, one person could do things with solids, liquids, and gases, that humans cannot do.

People cannot normally walk on things that aren’t solid. However, in Matthew 14:25–30, Jesus walked on water toward His disciples in a boat. He called to the disciple Peter who started walking on water too because of his faith in Jesus. As soon as he lost faith and began to fear, however, Peter lost the ability to stand on water. Jesus came to his rescue.

Walking on water, or any other liquid for that matter, would require strong faith in Christ. Jesus said that with faith the “size of a mustard seed”—a tiny solid!—we could move mountains. God wants people to have faith in Him and trust Him to guide them in their lives. When we fall, He will always be there to help us.

Changing States

Some substances are found as solids, liquids, or gases. There are examples of each in the previous paragraphs that students could find. Water is a liquid. But water, when it freezes, becomes a solid (ice). And when we heat it up and boil it, it turns into a gas we call water vapor.

Students will realize, then, that some substances can be found in more than one state even though it’s the same substance. On a hot summer day, we might want to enjoy an ice cream cone. That ice cream can start out pretty solid, but the high temperature causes it to slowly (or even quickly) melt, turning it into a liquid.

A mothball is another example of one of these substances. Mothballs are a solid and keep clothes fresh, but they release a gas into the air. We can even sometimes smell a mothball from the opposite side of a room. One more example is a cookie or cake. In a bakery, the cakes and cookies are solid, but the aroma we smell is a gas.

STATES OF MATTER LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The States of Matter lesson plan includes four worksheets: an activity worksheet, two practice worksheets, and a homework assignment. Each one of these handouts will help students demonstrate their knowledge and will reinforce what they learned throughout the lesson. Use the guidelines on the classroom procedure page to determine when to give students each worksheet.

OBSERVATION ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

Students will work with a partner for the activity. They will record information about 12 different items. The information they should include are things like size, shape, texture, and so on. The chart on the worksheet asks them to write which state of matter the item is in, the description, and why they chose that state of matter.

SOLID, LIQUID, OR GAS PRACTICE WORKSHEET

For this practice worksheet, students will read through 17 sentences that describe a state of matter. Some of the descriptions apply to more than one state. Students should include both states in those cases.

GENESIS PRACTICE WORKSHEET

The second practice worksheet requires students to read through the first 31 verses of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. A chart on the worksheet page lists several things that the verses mention, such as earth, land, seas, fruit, air, and so on. Students will mark an X in the columns for solid, liquid, or gas when it relates to the given thing. For instance, Earth comprises all three types of matter, so students should mark an X in all three columns. The final column asks students to explain why they chose the states of matter that they did for each thing.

STATES OF MATTER HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students will work with a parent or older sibling. They will walk through their home and write down examples of solids, liquids, and gases. Then they will look at a chart that lists six items. Students will mark an X in the column for the state of matter of that item. Then they will describe how they can use that item for God’s glory.

Worksheet Answer Keys

There are answer keys for the two practice worksheets and the homework assignment. Correct answers are in red so that it’s easier for you to compare them with students’ work. Some of the prompts are objective, so studnets’ answers can vary. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.