Grade 4 Phase Changes worksheet
from Gradelings · Name: ______________________
How to explain it
- Matter can be a solid, a liquid or a gas.
- Adding heat melts a solid, or evaporates a liquid into a gas (vapour).
- Taking heat away condenses a gas into a liquid, or freezes a liquid into a solid.
- The water cycle uses these changes: evaporation, condensation, then rain or snow.
Example: Drops form on the outside of a cold glass. Is heat being added or taken away? Water vapour in the air touches the cold glass. It cools and condenses into liquid drops, so heat is taken away. Answer: taken away
Question 1
An ice cube sits in a pot on a hot stove. Put what you would see in order.
- ♨️water vapour rising (gas)
- 💧liquid water
- 🧊solid ice
solid ice → liquid water → water vapour rising (gas)
Hint: Heat melts the solid into a liquid. More heat makes the liquid evaporate into a gas.
Question 2
To turn liquid water into ice, you need to…
❄️- shake it hard
- pour it into a bigger cup
- take heat away
- add heat
take heat away
Hint: Cooling water takes heat away. When it gets cold enough (0 °C), it freezes.
Question 3
Is heat being added or taken away? Tap an item, then tap its basket.
Sort into: 🔥 heat added · ❄️ heat taken away
- 🍦ice cream melts on a hot day
- 🪟frost forms on a window
- 🕯️melted candle wax hardens
- 🧊a pond freezes over
- 🌫️dry ice turns into gas
- ☀️a puddle dries up in the sun
🔥 heat added: ice cream melts on a hot day, dry ice turns into gas, a puddle dries up in the sun · ❄️ heat taken away: frost forms on a window, melted candle wax hardens, a pond freezes over
Hint: Melting, evaporation and sublimation need heat added. Freezing, condensation and deposition happen when heat is taken away.
Question 4
Water drops form on the outside of a cold glass of juice. What is this change called?
🥤- condensation
- evaporation
- freezing
- melting
condensation
Hint: Water vapour in the air touches the cold glass, cools down and turns back into liquid drops.
Question 5
What is the change from a liquid to a gas called?
💧➡️♨️liquid → gas- freezing
- evaporation
- deposition
- condensation
evaporation
Hint: Think of a puddle drying up in the sun. That change from liquid to gas is called evaporation.
Question 6
At what temperature does pure water freeze?
🌡️- 0 °C
- 50 °C
- 100 °C
- 25 °C
0 °C
Hint: Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
Question 7
Tiny drops of water cover the grass in the morning, but it didn't rain. Where did they come from?
🌱- Ice in the soil sublimated
- Clouds melted onto the lawn
- Water vapour in the air condensed on the cool grass
- The grass pushed water up from its roots
Water vapour in the air condensed on the cool grass
Hint: This is dew. Overnight the grass cools, and water vapour in the air condenses on it.
Question 8
Which two changes need heat to be added?
🔥- freezing and condensation
- condensation and deposition
- melting and evaporation
- freezing and deposition
melting and evaporation
Hint: Adding heat makes particles move faster: solids melt into liquids, and liquids evaporate into gases.
Question 9
Which change turns a liquid into a solid?
🧊- condensation
- freezing
- melting
- evaporation
freezing
Hint: Liquid water in a freezer becomes solid ice. That's freezing.
Question 10
Wet clothes on a clothesline dry in the sun. Where did the water go?
👕- It evaporated into the air as water vapour
- It soaked into the clothespins
- It froze into tiny ice cubes
- It was destroyed and is gone forever
It evaporated into the air as water vapour
Hint: Heat from the sun turns liquid water into an invisible gas called water vapour.
Answer key
- 1. solid ice → liquid water → water vapour rising (gas)
- 2. take heat away
- 3. 🔥 heat added: ice cream melts on a hot day, dry ice turns into gas, a puddle dries up in the sun · ❄️ heat taken away: frost forms on a window, melted candle wax hardens, a pond freezes over
- 4. condensation
- 5. evaporation
- 6. 0 °C
- 7. Water vapour in the air condensed on the cool grass
- 8. melting and evaporation
- 9. freezing
- 10. It evaporated into the air as water vapour
Want more than 10 questions?
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