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2nd grade · Science · Unit 2 of 11

Changing Materials

Cut, bend, mix, cook and burn

What your child practices

Ways to change materials: cutting, bending, mixing, warming and cooling keep the same material, while cooking, burning and rusting make something new.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 2.2; 2.4 · choosing materials for a job, and changes that can or cannot be undone

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Cutting, bending, melting and freezing change size, shape or state. It is still the same material.
  2. Cooking, burning and rusting make a new material.
  3. Ask: can it go back the way it was?

Example: Toasting bread: same material or a new one? Toast can't turn back into soft bread. Heat made something new. Answer: a new one

Changing Materials in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 11 in 2nd grade Science, after Solids & Liquids and before Mixtures & Materials.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is a chemical change?

    • 🧊ice melting
    • 📄paper being torn
    • 🕯️a candle wick burning

  2. Question 2

    Same material or a new one? Tap an item, then tap its basket.

    Sort into: ✂️ same material · 🔥 new material made

    • ✈️fold a paper plane
    • 🎂bake a cake
    • 🍞toast bread
    • 🍳fry an egg
    • ✂️cut paper
    • 🥕chop carrots

  3. Question 3

    You squeeze a ball of clay into a snake shape. Is it still clay?

    🐍
    • no, it became water
    • yes, only the shape changed
    • no, it became metal

  4. Question 4

    Which one changes a material by cooling it?

    • 🍎cutting an apple
    • 🧊putting juice in the freezer
    • 🍞toasting bread

  5. Question 5

    What can warn you that a chemical change is happening?

    • 😐nothing at all changes
    • ✂️the object only gets a new shape
    • 🧪a new smell, color, smoke or bubbles

  6. Question 6

    A change in shape, size or state, like cutting or melting, is called a…

    ✂️
    • life cycle
    • physical change
    • chemical change

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