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2nd grade · Science · Unit 2 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.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 2P.3.1.1.1 · changes from heating or cooling that can and cannot be reversed

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 Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 7 in 2nd grade Science, after Solids & Liquids and before Push & Pull.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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?

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

  2. Question 2

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

    ✂️
    • life cycle
    • chemical change
    • physical change

  3. Question 3

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

    Sort into: ✂️ same material · 🔥 new material made

    • 🥕chop carrots
    • 🧊melt an ice cube
    • 🔥burn wood in a campfire
    • ⚪squish clay into a ball
    • 🍞toast bread
    • 🎂bake a cake

  4. Question 4

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

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

  5. Question 5

    Which tool would you use to change the shape of paper?

    • 🌡️a thermometer
    • ✂️scissors
    • 🧲a magnet

  6. Question 6

    What happens to a raw egg when you cook it?

    • 💧it melts into water
    • 🍳it turns solid and can't turn back
    • 🐣it turns into a chick

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