2nd grade · Science · Unit 3 of 7
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.
Maine Learning Results learning standard: 2-PS1-1; 2-PS1-4 · describing materials and changes that can or cannot be reversed
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Cutting, bending, melting and freezing change size, shape or state. It is still the same material.
- Cooking, burning and rusting make a new material.
- 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 Maine
In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 3 of 7 in 2nd grade Science, after Water World 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: Maine Department of Education
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
Same material or a new one? Tap an item, then tap its basket.
Sort into: ✂️ same material · 🔥 new material made
- 🥕chop carrots
- ⚪squish clay into a ball
- 🍳fry an egg
- 🍞toast bread
- 🧊melt an ice cube
- 🔥burn wood in a campfire
✂️ same material: chop carrots, squish clay into a ball, melt an ice cube · 🔥 new material made: fry an egg, toast bread, burn wood in a campfire
Hint: Cutting, bending, melting and mixing keep the same material. Cooking and burning make something new.
Question 2
Which is a chemical change?
- 📄paper being torn
- 🧊ice melting
- 🕯️a candle wick burning
🕯️ a candle wick burning
Hint: Burning makes smoke and ash, which are new materials.
Question 3
What can warn you that a chemical change is happening?
- 🧪a new smell, color, smoke or bubbles
- 😐nothing at all changes
- ✂️the object only gets a new shape
🧪 a new smell, color, smoke or bubbles
Hint: New smells, colors, gas bubbles or smoke are clues that something new is made.
Question 4
A change that makes a new material, like burning or cooking, is called a…
🧪- push
- chemical change
- physical change
chemical change
Hint: Chemical changes make new materials. Physical changes only change shape, size or state.
Question 5
Chopping a carrot into pieces is a change in…
🥕- what it is made of
- its color inside
- size and shape
size and shape
Hint: Each piece is still carrot. Only the size and shape changed.
Question 6
What happens to a raw egg when you cook it?
- 💧it melts into water
- 🐣it turns into a chick
- 🍳it turns solid and can't turn back
🍳 it turns solid and can't turn back
Hint: Cooking changes an egg for good. That is a chemical change.