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2nd grade · Science · Unit 2 of 14

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 2.6(B) · changing physical properties by cutting, folding, melting and other processes

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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 2 of 14 in 2nd grade Science, after Solids & Liquids and before Animal Life Cycles.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    A recipe says to bake the muffins until they are golden. Which change happens?

    • 🧊the batter freezes
    • 🧁wet batter turns into fluffy muffins
    • 🌾the muffins turn back into flour

  2. Question 2

    Some plants, like berries, can be crushed and mixed with water to make…

    • 🪟glass
    • 🔩metal
    • 🧶dye to color cloth

  3. Question 3

    Why do we cook food?

    🍲
    • cooking turns food into ice
    • cooking makes food disappear
    • cooking changes food so it is safe and tasty to eat

  4. Question 4

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

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

  5. Question 5

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

    Sort into: ✂️ same material · 🔥 new material made

    • 🧊melt an ice cube
    • 🔥burn wood in a campfire
    • 🥕chop carrots
    • ✂️cut paper
    • 🍞toast bread
    • 🎂bake a cake

  6. Question 6

    Chopping a carrot into pieces is a change in…

    🥕
    • what it is made of
    • size and shape
    • its color inside

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