Year 7 Science

Materials and their Properties

Lesson 1

Sorting Things Out

Is your room a mess?

I am sure you have been told to tidy up and sort out the things in your room.

Are you good at sorting things out?

Do you put things in the right place or are you the type who bundles everything into cupboards and drawers?

You have been told at home how important it is to sort things out.

Practically everywhere you go things are sorted.

Library books are sorted. How?

How is the food sorted in the school canteen?

How is the money sorted in the cash till?

Activity1

Scientists like to sort things out; it is called classifying.

Sort these objects into two groups:

How did you classify them?

Are there are any other ways of classifying them into two groups?

Properties

All objects or materials have properties. These properties can help you classify materials.

Activity 2

Here are some objects.

Sort them by their properties.

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milk

water

brick

oil

coal

glass

air

plastic bag

paper bag

wood

natural gas

You can probably think of at least two ways of classifying these objects

Check your ways of sorting them with ours. Click here.

Sorting and classifying is useful. It helps you know where to find things.

It also helps you learn and remember information about objects in the world around us.

Activity 3

Mystery Object.

The object in the box has these properties

stretchy

bendy

opaque

soft

waterproof

thin

Click on the box to see if you are right?

You should now be able to sort materials by their properties. This skill is called classifying. You have also used another skill, observation.

Notes for Teachers and Parents

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