States of Matter

For a mini science unit this week we studied the 3 states of matter -solid, liquid, and gas.  We read books from the library and watched BrainPop Jr. videos to learn about the concept.  Next we did some experiments of our own.  We went on a scavenger hunt around our classroom to find examples of solids, liquids, and gas.  Gas of course was the trickiest one to show...that's why I was prepared with a balloon in my pocket to show a visible example of gas as I blew up the balloon.  Next we discussed chemical and physical reactions and had some fun with a few on our own.  We discovered we could create gas when mixing baking soda (solid) with vinegar (liquid).  Then we put water into my electric tea kettle and watched as it turned into steam and escaped into the air.  This was a favorite for the kiddos because it seemed we made our water disappear!  The following day we watched our snowman Frosty change before our eyes as we observed The Lifecycle of a Snowman.  I froze three balloons full of water so we could build our Frosty in the morning.  This represented the solid form, ice.  By the afternoon Frosty was in his liquid form, water.  Last into the tea kettle Frosty went so we could represent him as a gas, steam.  We drew and wrote about each stage of our snowman's lifecycle.  Science is such fun!