Subscribe

2nd grade · Science · Unit 1 of 7

Solids & Liquids

Melting, freezing and steam

What your child practices

Sorting solids and liquids, describing melting, freezing and boiling, and changes that can or can't be undone.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: 2-PS1-4; 2-ESS2-3 · changes from heating and cooling, and water as a solid or a liquid

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A solid keeps its shape, like a spoon or an ice cube.
  2. A liquid flows and takes the shape of its container, like juice.
  3. Warming melts solids into liquids. Cooling freezes liquids into solids.

Example: What happens to water in the freezer? The freezer is very cold. Cold turns liquid water into a solid. Answer: it freezes into ice

Solids & Liquids in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 1 of 7 in 2nd grade Science, before Water World.

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.

  1. Question 1

    What happens when you warm up butter?

    • 🪨It turns into stone
    • 🧈It gets softer and melts
    • 💨It becomes a gas right away

  2. Question 2

    What happens to a puddle of water on a very cold day?

    • 🧊It can freeze into ice
    • 🏖️It turns into sand
    • 🧃It becomes juice

  3. Question 3

    Where would you find water as a gas?

    • 🏞️a river
    • 🧊an ice cube
    • 🍲steam rising from hot soup

  4. Question 4

    Which one is a gas?

    • 🎈the air in a balloon
    • ✏️a pencil
    • 🧃a glass of juice

  5. Question 5

    Is it a solid or a liquid? Tap an item, then tap its basket.

    Sort into: 🧱 solid · 💧 liquid

    • 🥄spoon
    • 🥛milk
    • 🪨rock
    • 🍎apple
    • 💧water
    • 🍯honey

  6. Question 6

    Which words describe a solid?

    • 💨floats away in the air
    • 🧱hard and keeps its shape
    • 💧flows and pours

More 2nd grade