UNIT - MATERIALS

Welcome back!

For our return from spring break, we started the materials unit.

In this unit we introduced different types of materials: stone, metal, glass, plastic, wood, cotton, leather, and wool. We used flashcards and random objects found in the classroom as visual aides and had students use (both in written and spoken form) the sentence structure " it´s made of ..." to describe what these objects. They also described them, using the vocabulary from the five senses unit: rough, smooth, hard, soft and the new vocabulary: bend, stretch, twist.

Here is a fun online experiment / quiz. It tests various materials to see if they are bendy and/or waterproof:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/sorting_using_mate.shtml

Later, students learned that some materials such as wool, cotton, and leather are found naturally and can come from plants or animals. We further explored these natural materials. Students learned that wool, cotton, and leather are best for clothing, while glass, stone, wood, and metal are best for other objects such as houses. In the case of clothing, students learned that warm (and waterproof materials such as plastic) are more suited for cold weather, whereas cool materials are more suited for hot weather.

We finished the unit teaching students that some materials can be recycled. We placed different colored boxes (coordinated with the ones they might find on the street) for plastic/aluminium/glass, paper, and trash and had students recycle their snack and work materials.
This is an online recycling game that tests students on what can be recycled:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/barnabybear/games/recycle.shtml