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Kindergarten · Science · Unit 2 of 9

Materials

Soft, hard, rough and smooth

What your child practices

Describing everyday materials (soft or hard, rough or smooth, bendy or stiff), what sinks or floats, and naming what things are made of, like wood, metal, glass and cloth.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 0P.2.1.1.1 · sorting objects as natural or human-made, and by color, size, shape and texture

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Touch it. Is it soft or hard? Rough or smooth?
  2. Things are made of wood, metal, glass or cloth.
  3. Light things like leaves often float on water.

Example: Is a pillow soft or hard? Squeeze it in your mind. It squishes. Squishy things are soft. Answer: soft

Materials in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 9 in Kindergarten Science, after What Living Things Need 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 one is made of cloth?

    • 🔑key
    • 👕T-shirt
    • 🪨rock

  2. Question 2

    Which material comes from trees?

    🌳
    • 🔩metal
    • 🪵wood
    • 🪟glass

  3. Question 3

    Which one is made of wood?

    • 🪵log
    • 🪟window
    • 🔑key

  4. Question 4

    Which one is made of glass?

    • 🪟window
    • 🧦sock
    • 🪵log

  5. Question 5

    Soft or hard? Tap a picture, then its basket.

    Sort into: 🧸 soft · 🪨 hard

    • 🧶yarn
    • 🧣scarf
    • 🪵log
    • 🪙coin
    • 🧱brick
    • 🧽sponge

  6. Question 6

    Which one is hard?

    • 🪶feather
    • 🪨rock
    • 🧦sock

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