Three States of Matter

I just love teaching science and I really love teaching matter.  The kids really get into it!

This last week I used the theme of snowmen which was a great way to integrate the three states of matter.  At first I wasn't sure if we would even have snow this week and we ended up with an abundance plus some extremely frigid weather.

Books:

The Sneezy Snowman by Maureen Wright
Sneezy doesn't like being so cold so he tries to get warmer. Of course he melts!  Then they build him again!  This was a great way to integrate the solid and liquid!



The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
A great classic.  Peter spends time outside and decides to bring a snowball in the house and keep it in his pocket.  He soons learns that snowballs - melt!

There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro
Now this story doesn't have any melting but building of a snowman!  After we read the story we brought in some of our wonderful cold snow!


DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?

Wow - this snow is cold!

We got some gloves and tried to build the base.  The snow wasn't packing snow.  So we added some water from a water bottle and it helped a bit.
Earlier this week we discussed and wrote the process on How to build a snowman. 
 Next we built the middle of the snowman.

Our head is looking a bit sad but it's there.

We added in some buttons, scarf and arms.  We discussed what state of matter it is and what properties made it a solid.  The snowman had a shape.  This is a soft solid.
We then discussed what would be the next state of matter if the snowman melted and what do we need to make a change in the matter.
We needed a heat source.  I turned on the skillet to 400 degrees.

It started melting right away and then started boiling 
 Kids starting saying,"Poor Snowman!"


He's now was a liquid!  The water took the shape of the container.


 Can you see the steam?  The kids caught on to this right away and told me it was a gas!  Wow I have a smart class!

Good bye Mr. Snowman! It only took about 15 minutes and he was all gone!  What happened to him?  Let's build him again!










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