☰ Year plan · Science

Properties of materials

Week 12 · Unit 3 · 3.2 · 3 lessons
1

Hard, soft, rough, smooth

Workbook 2: Topic 3.2, pp. 32–34
GoalDescribe how a material looks and feels using words such as hard, soft, rough, smooth and shiny.
New words
property · something you can say about a material, such as how it feelshard · not easy to squash or scratchrough · bumpy to touchsmooth · even and flat to touch
Explanation

We describe a material by its properties. A property tells us how a material looks or feels. Some materials are hard, like a rock or a coin. Some are soft, like wool or a sponge. Sandpaper feels rough and bumpy. A glass window feels smooth. Some materials are shiny, so light bounces off them, like a new spoon. Using the right words helps us tell materials apart.

hardsoft
Worked examples
rough barksmooth ruler
A tree’s bark is rough and bumpy. A plastic ruler is smooth.
coinspoonscarf
A new coin and a metal spoon are hard and shiny. A woolly scarf is soft and dull.
pebble
One material can have more than one property. A pebble is hard and smooth.
Class activity

Feely bag game (with an adult): put five safe objects in a cloth bag, such as a sponge, a pebble, a wooden spoon, a sock and a coin. Take turns to put a hand in the bag and say two properties of what you feel, such as “soft and bumpy”. Can the other player guess the object?

Practice
1
Write one word that means ‘not hard’.
2
Which of these feels soft?
ABC
3
Sandpaper is not smooth. What word describes it?
4
Which of these is shiny?
ABC