T E

A C H E R S

N O T E S

Focus:

Students explore the three main forms of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Students learn how solids and liquids change shape, and how matter can be mixed and separated, how we store matter, and safely get rid of matter that is harmful.
Learning Goals:
Students will have opportunities to learn how to correctly use the terms gas, liquid, matter, solid, material, solid, absorb, mix, mixture, separate, toxic, waste that everything in the world is matter that all matter is a solid, liquid, or gas that solids and liquids have their own characteristics how matter can sometimes be mixed and separated how matter can be stored safely how we get rid of matter that is harmful

Discussion Prompts:

What are the different forms of matter? What are solids and liquids, and how do they change shape? How can you mix or separate matter? Why is it important to store some matter carefully? What forms of matter must be handled carefully so they do not harm living things?

Assess students responses during discussions. -  Do students understand that all things are made up of matter? -  Can they name the types of matter and their unique characteristics? -  Can students explain how some matter can be mixed and/or separated? -  Can students explain why some forms of matter must be handled carefully to preserve it? -  Can students suggest ways to get rid of harmful matter in a safe way?`

Assessment Prompts:

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Do students demonstrate, in their discussions and answers to questions, understanding of the science vocabulary used in the cards for this unit? Are students able to carry out the skills of scientific inquiry, following activity procedure steps safely and accurately, making observations when appropriate?

Links to PCSP Student Book Matter, Matter Everywhere

Card 1: see lessons 1 and 11 Card 2: see lessons 2 and 3 Card 3: see lessons 5 and 6 Card 4: see lessons 4, 7, 9, and 10 Card 5: see lessons 13 and 14

Focus:

Students discover what matter is and what it is like.

Activity Description: Students click on different sections of the picture to find the matter and answer the Think question. Learning Goal: Students learn that all things are matter. Ask Students: What is matter? Assessment: Are students able to tell you what matter is? Do they understand it comes in three forms (solid, liquid, gas)?

Introduce students to the topic with the video showing a beach. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Activity Description: Students complete the timed activity to sort the pictures into the correct matter categories in order to answer the Think question. Learning Goal: Students review their knowledge of the three categories of matter. Ask Students: What are the three types of matter? Assessment: Are students able to sort objects and pictures into one of the three categories of matter?

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Activity Description: Students conduct an experiment to see how water changes in different temperatures. Students then click the orange icon to play a timed drag-and-drop activitiy. They drag a picture of an object onto the image of sunshine, a freezer, and an oven to see what happens to the object in each of these situations.
Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Learning Goal: Students enhance their understanding of the three types of matter and how matter can change in certain conditions. Ask Students: What is happening to the matter in each of these conditions (in sunshine, the freezer, and the heat of the oven)? Assessment: Are students able to describe what happens to matter under different conditions?
PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Focus:

Students learn how to define a solid and how solids change shape.

Activity Description: In the screen that appears, students look at pictures to describe solids (hard, smooth, and soft). Students click on the orange icon to drag and drop words that describe solid objects to answer the Think question. Students then click the orange icon to sort objects by how they are made. Learning Goal: Students explore how solids can be described and how they are made. Ask Students: What words can be used to describe solids? How are different solids made? Assessment: Can students describe a variety of solids and tell you how they are made?

Introduce students to the topic with the video of a rock climber. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Activity Description: Students click on pictures of solids to sort them by shape and answer the Think question. In a self-checking activity, students click on the orange icon to match items to how they can be changed. Learning Goals: Students review how solids are shaped and how they can be changed. Ask Students: What can change a solid? Assessment: Can students describe how solids can be changed?

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Activity Description: In the next screen, the students look at two pictures of clay rabbits (one baked, the other unbaked) and observe what is the same and what is different. Students click on the orange icon to drag and drop descriptive words about the two rabbits into a Venn diagram.
Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Learning Goal: Students will consolidate their understanding of solids, and how they can be described and changed. Ask Students: Can you describe the properties of a solid and how it can be changed? Assessment: Can students look at a variety of solids, describe them, and explain how they were made?

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Focus:

Students discover what liquids are and what they are like.

Introduce students to the topic with the video of a child painting. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Activity Description: Students click onto a screen that asks them to sort things into liquid versus solid. This activity answers the Think question. Students click on continue and click on the containers to learn more about the qualities of liquids compared with solids.
Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Activity Description: Students sort liquids (pour slowly versus pour quickly) to answer the Think question. Students then click continue to complete a timed activity to learn more about how different liquids pour. Learning Goal: Students discover that liquids have different qualities. Ask Students: How are liquids different? Assessment: Are students able to describe how some liquids are different than others?

Learning Goal: Students explore the differences between solids and liquids. Ask Students: How are solids and liquids different? Assessment: Can students describe some of the differences between solids and liquids?

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Activity Description: Students investigate how liquids fill different types of containers. They click the orange icons to learn more about how liquids take the shape of its container. The third orange icon takes students to a timed activity, where they must match the shape of a container with the correct liquid.
Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Learning Goal: Students will expand their knowledge of the qualities of liquids and how they fill containers. Ask Students: What are some qualities of liquids? How does the type of container change the liquid? Assessment: Can students describe how liquids are different from solids? Can they use matter vocabulary to make their comparison?
PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Focus:

Students explore how matter mixes and how it separates.

Activity Description: Text answers the Think question. Students click on the orange icon to drag and drop colours to see how they mix. Students then click on a new orange icon and play a timed drag-and-drop activity that tests their knowledge of colour-mixing. Learning Goal: Students will explore how colours mix together. Ask Students: What happens when you mix certain colours together? Assessment: Are students able to tell you what colours are created from different colour combinations? Can they use paint to show their understanding?

Introduce students to the topic with the video of fruit and milk being mixed in a blender. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Activity Description: Students click on each picture to answer the Think question. Students click continue to choose the best tool to separate the three different mixtures presented. Learning Goal: Students will explore how matter is separated. Ask Students: How can matter be separated? Assessment: Are students able to give several examples of how matter can be separated and describe the correct tools to do this?
PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Activity Description: Students carry out an investigation to see which objects float or sink in water, and which absorb water. Students then click the orange icon to play a drag-and-drop activity. Students drag and drop items to see what will float and what will sink in water. Students then click on the orange icon to sort items that can absorb water.
Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

Learning Goal: Students will review what can float and sink, and what can absorb water. Ask Students: Why can some items float and others sink? What kinds of items can absorb water? Assessment: Are students able to give several examples of things that can float, sink, and absorb water and explain why?

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Focus:

Students explore how we store matter and get rid of matter.

Activity Description: Students drag and drop items on this first screen to sort whether they should be in a locked or unlocked cupboard. Students then click on continue to learn more about the items in each storage space. Learning Goal: Students discover which items should be locked away for safety. Ask Students: Why do some things from the cupboard have to be locked away? Assessment: Are students able to describe why some items must be locked away and are dangerous to our health?

Introduce students to the topic with the video of a fridge. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Activity Description: A new screen asks students to click on the safety shapes to learn about what they mean in order to answer the Think question. Students then click on the orange icon to complete a timed activity to drag and drop labels to match the safety signs. Students click another orange icon to the next screen to sort the signs into poisonous, flammable, and corrosive categories in this timed, self-checking activity. Learning Goal: Students will discover that dangerous items are labelled by category to help warn people. Activity Description: A new screen called Safe Storage answers the Think question by having students click on the pictures. Students then click continue to explore how fruits and vegetables are stored, and then the orange icon to display the picture with blue dots where they learn how each item in the refrigerator is stored. Learning Goal: Students will learn about how food items are safely stored. Ask Students: How are foods properly stored? Assessment: Are students able to describe how and why we keep some food in the refrigerator to keep it safe?
PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

Ask Students: What do the safety shapes and signs mean? Assessment: Are students able to describe what the shapes and signs tell them? Do they understand how many of these signs indicate that an item is dangerous to humans?

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

10

Activity Description: Students are introduced to the five Rs and after clicking the orange icon by the Think question, they drag-and-drop different actions onto the correct R category. Students click the green icon to return to the Earth Matter page. They click the second orange icon to play a timed drag-and-drop activity about correct forms of waste disposal. Students answer the Think question by completing a timed activity that asks them to drag-and-drop items from a garage into the proper container (recycle, hazardous waste, to charity). Learning Goal: Students review their understanding of the many ways things can be disposed of safely and wisely using the five Rs. Ask Students: What are the many ways you can get rid of items safely and wisely, remembering the five Rs? Assessment: Are students able to draw/describe the many safe and environmentally friendly ways to get rid of unwanted items?

Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010

PCSP Interactive Science Teachers Notes

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