Look around you. Everything is made of materials! Wood, metal, plastic, glass, cloth, and paper are all materials. Each material has properties. A property is something you can observe about a material.
Color is a property. Texture is a property too. Texture is how something feels, like rough or smooth. Hardness tells us if a material is hard like a rock or soft like a pillow. Flexibility tells us if a material bends. Absorbency tells us if a material soaks up water, like a sponge.
Scientists sort materials by their properties. This is called classifying. When we classify, we put things into groups that are alike. Today you will classify materials just like a scientist!
1. What do we call something you can observe about a material?
2. What property tells us how something feels?
3. What does it mean when a material is absorbent?
4. Name three materials you can see in your room right now.
Write what each word means in your own words.
Write the material each object is mostly made of: wood, metal, plastic, glass, cloth, or paper.
| Object | Material |
|---|---|
| A spoon for cooking | |
| A pencil | |
| A window | |
| A t-shirt | |
| A toy building block | |
| A book page |
Write T for true or F for false in each circle.
Draw one thing made of wood, one made of metal, and one made of cloth.
1. Why is a towel made of cloth and not glass?
2. Name one thing that is hard AND smooth.
1. A ______________ is something we can observe about a material.
2. Rough or smooth describes a material's ______________ .
3. A paper towel soaks up water because it is ______________ .
4. A material that bends easily is ______________ .
5. A rock is ______________ , not soft.
6. Scientists ______________ materials by sorting them into groups.
You need: 6 small objects from around your home (with a grown-up's help).
Observe each object. Check the boxes that describe it. One object can have many properties!
| Object | Hard? | Soft? | Smooth? | Rough? | Bends? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
You will go on a texture scavenger hunt! Start noticing how things feel when you touch them.
| I learned... | Circle one |
|---|---|
| What a material is | YES / NOT YET |
| What a property is | YES / NOT YET |
| How to classify by properties | YES / NOT YET |