Objective:
Child will understand that materials have a variety of properties and that these can be used separately or together to identify them.
Essential Question(s):
What are some attributes of bricks?
How can we think about attributes of other materials by understanding these bricks?
Special Materials:
Something to sort bricks into
Bricks Required:
All
Project Structure
Engage/Explain:
- Ask child about some properties of items in the house.
- Encourage child to describe features of household objects. Perhaps there are squishy couch cushions, bookshelves, shiny counters, etc.
- Explain that all matter and materials have various properties that scientists use to classify them, such as hardness, thermal conductivity, solubility.
Explore:
- Ask child about the various properties of SOHO bricks.
- Child may point out color, size, type (brick, plate, tile).
- Ask about the functionality of these properties: Color is for design, type is for purpose, etc.
- Ask child how they would rank these classifications in order of significance. For example, is it more important to sort by type or by color?
- Make a list on the board with child’s input about the agreed-upon categories for sorting (for example, by size and type but not by color–so all the 2×2 bricks would go together).
- Ask child to sort the bricks.
Elaborate:
- After sorting the bricks, connect the brick properties more closely to materials: powders, metals, etc.