What is matter? Why does it matter?
It matters because matter matters!
Matter can be described as anything that has importance or is significant. Think about it – you carry a backpack with you to and from school. Sometimes it’s heavy, sometimes it is not heavy. What’s in there? One word – stuff! Stuff is what you carry around in there. But, not just any stuff! It’s YOUR STUFF! Thus, it matters! It is important to you, therefore it has significance.
Matter is anything that has physical substance. Anything you can touch, feel, smell, taste, see (and sometimes cannot see) – it’s all matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. Matter is everywhere, it’s all around you. You can’t move without bumping into or stepping on matter. It’s not only stuff, it’s the stuff that makes up stuff!
This week many of the classes are learning about matter, what it is, about it’s physical states, how it changes, and why matter matters.
Kindergarten is learning that all matter has physical properties that can be sorted by its attributes, such as shape, size, color, texture, temperature, and weight. Kindergarten has been busy sorting all kinds of things by their attributes, counting, comparing (what has more, what has less), and then resorting them by another attribute. If it can be counted, it can be sorted! Every shape, every color, every size – they have sorted it all; nothing is too great, or too small to be be sorted; (Matter matters, after all!) From crayons to animals, buttons and even button holes, they are sorting and grouping. What can you sort?
These students are sorting plastic counting jungle animals by colors, while others are sorting by animal kinds.
These students are sorting crayons by colors, and can visually discriminate which colors have more, which colors have less.
These girls are sorting the buttons by colors and finding which group has the most, which group has the least.
These boys are sorting pattern blocks by shape and color together.
