5th grade · Science · Unit 2 of 12
Matter & Particles
Everything is made of particles
What your child practices
All matter is made of tiny particles. How particles are arranged in solids, liquids and gases, and how heating and cooling cause melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.1 · evidence for tiny particles in solids, liquids and gases
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Everything is made of tiny particles that are always moving.
- In a solid, particles are packed tight. In a liquid, they slide past each other.
- In a gas, particles are far apart, move fast and spread in every direction.
- That's why smells travel across a room.
Example: Why can you smell cookies baking from the next room? Tiny particles leave the cookies. They spread through the air to your nose. Answer: particles spread through the air
Matter & Particles in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 12 in 5th grade Science, after Solid, Liquid, Gas and before Measuring Matter.
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.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What happens to the particles in ice as it melts?
🧊- they disappear
- they stop moving
- they move faster and slide past each other
they move faster and slide past each other
Hint: Heat gives the particles energy. They break out of their places and start sliding, like in a liquid.
Question 2
Is this change caused by heating or cooling?
Sort into: 🔥 heating · ❄️ cooling
- 🪟drops form on a cold window
- 🧈butter melts in a pan
- ☀️a puddle dries up in the sun
- 🍧juice becomes a frozen pop
- 🍫chocolate goes soft in the sun
- 🕯️melted wax hardens
🔥 heating: butter melts in a pan, a puddle dries up in the sun, chocolate goes soft in the sun · ❄️ cooling: drops form on a cold window, juice becomes a frozen pop, melted wax hardens
Hint: Heating makes particles move faster (melting, evaporating). Cooling slows them down (freezing, condensing).
Question 3
Can you see the particles in a rock with just your eyes?
🪨- No, they are much too small
- Yes, they are as big as marbles
- Yes, if you look very closely
No, they are much too small
Hint: Particles are so tiny that millions of them would fit on the tip of a pencil.
Question 4
A cold glass of water gets wet on the outside on a hot day. Why?
🥛- the glass is melting
- water leaks through the glass
- water vapor in the air cools and turns into drops
water vapor in the air cools and turns into drops
Hint: Water vapor in the air touches the cold glass, cools down and becomes liquid. That's condensation.
Question 5
In a solid, the particles are…
🧊- sliding past each other
- packed tightly, wiggling in place
- far apart and zooming around
packed tightly, wiggling in place
Hint: That's why a solid keeps its shape. Its particles stay in place and just wiggle.
Question 6
Heating makes particles move…
🔥- faster
- not at all
- slower
faster
Hint: Adding heat gives particles more energy, so they move faster.