Unit Plan 2 (Grade 2 Science): Properties of Materials
Students classify materials by texture, hardness, flexibility, and color as they plan investigations, test properties, record data, and explain grouping rules.
Focus: Classify objects by observable properties such as texture, hardness, flexibility, and color, by planning and conducting simple investigations.
Grade Level: 2
Subject Area: Science (Physical Science • Science & Engineering Practices)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 30–45 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students become “material detectives” who explore how different objects are made and how we can describe and sort them using their properties. Through guided hands-on investigations, students touch, look closely (no tasting), and sometimes gently test materials to see if they are hard or soft, flexible or rigid, rough or smooth, and what colors and other features they have. They plan and conduct investigations to describe and classify materials into groups, learning that scientists use observable properties to figure out what materials are good for certain jobs, addressing 2-PS1-1.
Essential Questions
- How can we use our senses and simple tests to describe what a material is like?
- What does it mean to classify materials, and why do scientists and engineers do it?
- How can texture, hardness, flexibility, and color help us put materials into groups?
- How does planning and doing an investigation help us answer questions about materials?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Use their senses (except taste) to observe materials and describe them with words like rough/smooth, hard/soft, flexible/rigid, and color words.
- Plan and conduct simple investigations to test material properties (e.g., gentle bend test for flexibility, gentle press/scratch test for hardness).
- Record data about materials in simple tables or charts, noting texture, hardness, flexibility, and color.
- Classify materials into groups based on one property (e.g., hard vs. soft) and later based on two properties (e.g., smooth & flexible vs. rough & rigid).
- Explain their sorting rules to classmates and show how observable properties helped them decide which group an object belongs to.
- Use property words and simple data to describe and classify different kinds of materials in line with 2-PS1-1.
Standards Alignment — 2nd Grade (NGSS-Aligned)
- 2-PS1-1 — Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can describe how a material feels and looks using words like rough, smooth, hard, soft, flexible, rigid, and color words.
- I can help plan and do a simple test to find out more about a material (like gently bending or pressing it).
- I can fill in a chart that shows the properties of different materials.
- I can group materials that are alike in at least one property and explain my sorting rule.
- I can tell how our investigation helped us describe and classify materials.