Some materials can change shape when we squash, bend, twist or stretch them. Heating and cooling change materials too: ice melts, water freezes and cake mixture bakes into cake.
What your child will learn
- Change the shape of objects by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching
- Know which materials spring back and which stay in their new shape
- Describe how heating and cooling change materials
- Know that some changes can be undone and some cannot
Can it go back?
Stretch a rubber band and it springs back — it is elastic. Bend a paperclip and it stays bent. Melted chocolate can be cooled into a solid again, but a baked cake can never turn back into flour and eggs.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. True or false? You can change the shape of modelling clay by squashing it.
Show answer
Answer: True. Clay stays in whatever shape you squash it into.
2. What happens to water in a freezer?
- It freezes into ice
- It boils
- It turns to juice
- It disappears
Show answer
Answer: It freezes into ice. Very cold temperatures freeze water.
3. Pressing playdough down to make it flat is called…
- freezing
- twisting
- stretching
- squashing
Show answer
Answer: squashing. Squashing pushes something flatter.
Tips for grown-ups
- Play with playdough: squash, roll, twist and stretch it.
- Freeze juice into ice lollies and watch them melt.
- Talk about changes while cooking: which can be undone?