step 1 of 6
You know the describing words: hard, soft, shiny, rough. Now use them to make groups. Sam has a marble, a sponge, and a rock on the table.
Which two things belong in the hard group?
Grouping Materials
Compare and group everyday materials based on their simple physical properties
What a learner can do afterwards
- Sort a set of materials into groups based on a chosen property (e.g. transparent vs opaque)
- Compare two materials and state which properties they share and which differ
- Explain the reasoning behind a grouping decision using property vocabulary
1 · Read
You know that materials have properties. Some are hard, some are soft. Some are shiny, some are dull. Things can also be waterproof or not, see-through or not, heavy or light. You can use these properties to make groups.
Try it together
Sam has a marble, a sponge, and a rock. The marble and the rock are hard. The sponge is soft. Sam makes two groups: hard and soft.
Try it together
A glass cup and a paper cup can both hold water. But the glass cup is see-through. The paper cup is not. They share one thing. They differ in another.
Good to know
To group things, pick one property first. Then check each item one by one. Ask: does it have that property?
Grouping has a method. Pick one property first, like hard or shiny. Then check each thing: does it have that property? In the group or out. A good group always has a reason you can say out loud, like these are all bendy. If the reason is not true for every thing in the group, the group is wrong.
Pick a property, then sort things by it, and say why.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.