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States of Matter: How Heat Changes Solids, Liquids & Gases

Students heat and cool a box of particles to see why ice, water, and steam are all the same stuff — and discover that everything is made of tiny particles too small to see.

Grades 3–5Upper Elementary 45 minutes1 class period 5E ModelInquiry-based 4 StandardsNGSS + CCSS
Start the Lesson
Lesson at a Glance

Everything you need before the bell rings

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to…

  • ✓Identify the three common states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.
  • ✓Describe how particles are arranged and move in each state.
  • ✓Explain how heating and cooling cause matter to change state.
  • ✓Recognize that matter is made of particles too small to see, and is conserved when it changes.
Essential Question

Ice, water, and steam look totally different — but they’re all the same thing. What makes one turn into another?

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5E Phases
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Vocabulary Terms
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Standards Aligned
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Interactive Task
Explore · Interactive Model

The Matter Machine

Project this and slide the temperature up and down. Students watch the particles rearrange and record how movement changes from solid to liquid to gas.

🌡️ Change the temperature — watch the particlesTry it
Temperature: ColdSolid

The Lesson · 5E Model

45 minutes, five moves

Tap any phase to open the teacher moves and student actions.

1

Engage — One Thing, Three Faces

5 min

Ice, water, steam — how can they be the same stuff?

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Show ice, liquid water, and steam (or photos).
  • Ask: “How can one substance look so different?”
  • Collect ideas about what makes them change.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Describe how the three look and feel.
  • Predict what turns one into another.
  • Record a first idea in their notebook.
2

Explore — The Matter Machine

12 min

Students heat and cool a box of particles.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Send groups to the Matter Machine above.
  • Ask them to slide temperature 0 → 100 and observe.
  • Prompt: “How do the particles move in each state?”

🎒 Student Actions

  • Slide from cold to hot and back.
  • Sketch particle arrangement for solid, liquid, gas.
  • Note how spacing and speed change with heat.
3

Explain — Particles & Energy

12 min

Name the states and connect heat to particle movement.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Define solid, liquid, gas by particle spacing/motion.
  • Connect heating = more energy = faster, freer particles.
  • Introduce melting, freezing, evaporating, condensing.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Match each state to its particle picture.
  • Explain why heating melts a solid.
  • Label the change words on their sketches.
4

Elaborate — Changes All Around Us

11 min

Where do we see these changes every day?

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Connect to real life: ice cubes, boiling water, foggy mirrors.
  • Introduce that matter is conserved (nothing disappears).
  • Ask: is melting reversible? Is burning toast?

🎒 Student Actions

  • List everyday examples of state changes.
  • Explain what happens to a melting ice cube’s water.
  • Sort changes as reversible or not.
5

Evaluate — Exit Ticket

5 min

Three quick checks on states and changes.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Hand out the exit ticket below.
  • Look for particle descriptions + the heat idea.
  • Collect as formative data.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Name the three states.
  • Describe particles in each.
  • Explain how heat changes state.
Standards Alignment

Built to the standards you report on

Aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core literacy. State-standard crosswalks available on request.

NGSS
5-PS1-1

Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

NGSS
5-PS1-3

Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.

NGSS
5-PS1-4

Conduct an investigation to determine whether mixing two or more substances results in new substances.

CCSS
W.5.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Differentiation

One lesson, every learner

Multilingual Learners

ELL / EMERGING READERS
  • Movement demo: students BE particles (tight → loose → free).
  • Picture-word cards for solid/liquid/gas.
  • Sentence frame: “When it gets hot, particles ___.”

Support & Access

IEP / 504
  • Provide a labeled particle-arrangement reference card.
  • Focus on solid vs. gas (biggest contrast) first.
  • Allow arrows/drawings instead of written answers.

Stretch & Extend

GIFTED / EARLY FINISHERS
  • Investigate a fourth state: plasma.
  • Time how long ice takes to melt at different spots.
  • Explain why a sealed bag of ice weighs the same after melting.
Materials

What to gather

  • 📽️Projector / board
  • 📓Science notebooks
  • 💻The Matter Machine
  • 🧊Ice cubes (optional demo)
  • ✏️Colored pencils
  • 🎫Exit-ticket slips
Vocabulary

Key terms — hover for a quick definition

matteranything that takes up spacesolidfixed shape and volumeliquidtakes its container’s shapegasspreads to fill spaceparticlea tiny piece of mattermeltsolid → liquidfreezeliquid → solidevaporateliquid → gas
Evaluate

Exit Ticket

Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.

QUESTION 1
Name the three states of matter and give an example of each.
Solid (ice, rock), liquid (water, juice), gas (steam, air).
QUESTION 2
How are particles different in a solid versus a gas?
In a solid, particles are packed tightly and only vibrate in place. In a gas, particles have lots of energy, move fast, and spread far apart to fill their space.
QUESTION 3
How does heating change matter? Give an example.
Heating gives particles more energy so they move faster and spread out, which can change state — for example, heating ice melts it into water, and more heating turns it into steam.

Going deeper? Run a melt race.

Give groups identical ice cubes and let them design a fair test of where ice melts fastest (sun, shade, hand, water). A printable fair-test planner is in the Science library.

Study · Flashcards

Study the key terms

Tap a card to flip it, then rate whether you knew it. Built from this lesson’s vocabulary.

🃏 States of MatterFlip
Card 1
Term
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Meaning
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Practice · Quiz

Check your understanding

A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.

📝 States of MatterQuiz
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1 / 6
Question 1
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Practice · Worksheet

Printable worksheet

A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.

🖨️ States of MatterPrint
Name: ________________________
Date: ____________

Part A · Write the word that matches each meaning

Word bank: evaporate, freeze, gas, liquid, matter, melt, particle, solid
  1. liquid → gas
  2. fixed shape and volume
  3. spreads to fill space
  4. anything that takes up space
  5. liquid → solid
  6. a tiny piece of matter
  7. solid → liquid
  8. takes its container’s shape

Part B · Show what you learned

  1. Name the three states of matter and give an example of each.
  2. How are particles different in a solid versus a gas?
  3. How does heating change matter? Give an example.
Answer key — Part A: 1) evaporate · 2) solid · 3) gas · 4) matter · 5) freeze · 6) particle · 7) melt · 8) liquid
Part B: 1) Solid (ice, rock), liquid (water, juice), gas (steam, air). 2) In a solid, particles are packed tightly and only vibrate in place. In a gas, particles have lots of energy, move fast, and spread far apart to fill their space. 3) Heating gives particles more energy so they move faster and spread out, which can change state — for example, heating ice melts it into water, and more heating turns it into steam.