States of Matter Lesson Module

Kindergarten through second grade students have experience with matter in its three states: solid, liquid and gas. In the States of Matter module, students further explore the unique properties used to characterize each phase, and learn that anything on earth that has mass and takes up space is matter.

Core Concept

On Earth matter is found most commonly in three different phases: solid, liquid and gas.

Essential Vocabulary

Solid, liquid, gas, definite, container, vibrate, particles, unique, phase, volume

Lesson Plan

View Lesson Plan

Interactive Demos

SillyBulls

This Elaborate session allows students to practice and apply new terminology related to matter. In this session, students participate in a selection of activities that focus on the content vocabulary addressed throughout the module. To complete the session, students work independently or with peers to complete an offline activity that reinforces literacy skills.

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Aroma Maze

This Elaborate session allows students to apply what they have learned to new situations. In this session, students participate in a selection of activities that focus on science process skills and content understanding. To complete the session, students work independently or with peers to complete an offline activity that reinforces science process skills.

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Professional Development

Science4Us provides the essentials that teachers need to confidently and effectively lead a classroom in any science lesson. This demo shows:

One section of the "Teacher Explain"
One of the 40 teacher support documents

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Additional Information

Animated and live video clips in the games and instructional video engage and inform students about the states of matter. In addition, students will listen to a song reinforcing the three states of matter, while included language activities allow students to explore the nouns in the song. In the interactive notebook activity, students practice and record what they’ve learned and strengthen their math skills by presenting the information using a chart and a graph.

To help you expand on the online material, printable teacher guides are available as part of professional development. These teacher guides include hands-on activities, discussion questions and more.

Additional professional development comes in the form of Teacher Lessons that provide information such as best practices for extending knowledge, cross-content and vocabulary connections and common misconceptions specific to each lesson. For example, students learning the States of Matter usually have the misconception that objects that are hollow are not solid, when in fact, any type of matter that keeps its shape is a solid, whether or not it is hollow.

Correlations to K-2 Standards Free K-2 Science Resources Sign up for free!