How Heat Changes Things

This week we are learning about heat and how it changes things.

I passed out pictures to my students. Then I had them observe their picture and discuss how the object would change if heat were added to it. I had students share "My picture is a(n) ______. It would change when heat is added by ______. I then had students find the picture that showed their object with heat added to it. You can download these pictures in color and for free here.

We learned what matter is last week (anything you can see, feel, touch, and taste- anything that takes up space). This week we took it a step further and talked about the different states of matter. We focused on liquid and solid mostly.

We learned that liquids take up space. That they can flow, be poured, and be spilled. Liquids do not have a shape. We learned that solids have a certain size and shape. You can change the shape of a solid, but it will still be a solid. For example: you can cut a cake into slices, but it is still a cake.

I got a bucket of ice cubes from the cafeteria for us to use with these activities. I asked students where we should put our ice cubes if we wanted them to melt slowly? quickly?

We read Melting and Freezing. Then I passed ice in different kinds of cups around so that my students could see how they felt. Then we made some predictions about where ice would melt the fastest and the slowest and how it would melt differently in different places. We also talked about the difference in the Styrofoam cup and the plastic cup. We placed cups of ice in the shade and sun outside. We also placed them in the freezer, the refrigerator, and the out on a table in the classroom.

Today we talked more about how heat changes things and also about physical changes by making pancakes. Firefighter John came straight from the station this morning to make his chocolate chip pancakes for us. I had my students watch in small groups as he made pancakes and talked with them about liquids, solids, and how heat changes things. Making pancakes is a great way to illustrate how heat changes things because students can watch the entire process as it happens. Popping popcorn in an air popper also works well for demonstrating how heat changes things.

We wrote about our experience with cooking the pancakes. Then we made these kids eating pancakes. The kids came from the TLC Lessons Five Senses Book. We turned the ice cream in the original version into a chocolate chip pancake.