Chemical Properties 3rd Grade Lesson 3

• Focus Question: How can we explore our unknowns? What are some of your ideas about how to explore the unknowns? (Ask the students these questions and write down their answers on the board.) We can smell with our nose, observe with our eyes, and feel by touching the texture of the substance.)

• Planning: The students will receive carton or cardboard with a paper that has five circles, labeled by the corresponding color that is labeled on the container that hold the mystery substances. The students will be handed the five mystery substances labeled orange, yellow, red, and blue. There is a spoon marked with the color that goes to the substance so the students do not cross contaminate. There will also be toothpicks for the students to use to mix and test the substances. On the piece of paper there will be a sixth circle divided into five different sections to place the correct substance with the colored labeled. The sixth circle will be the control circle, which the students will use to compare the other circles with. (Tell the students all of this and ask them what contaminate means? Put this word on the word wall. Ask the students what a control circle is. Tell them it is to compare and contrast their unknowns. Tell the students we are going to add water to each of the five substances and use the tooth pick to blend the each substance one at a time with the water. Tell them to make sure to use a different tooth pick for every substance.)

• Prediction: If we add water to our unknowns, they might change colors. The state of the unknown could change. 

• Data: Take a spoonful of the color corresponding the color on the spoon and place it in the circle. Do this for all the labeled cirleces. Add water and observe the results based on the control  circle. (Tell the students to use there senses to observe the substances and write down what they observed. ) 

• Color	How it Feels	How it Looks	How it Smells	Other
  Green	Soft	White	No smell
  Orange	Stiff	Clumpy	“               ”	Powder or flour
  Blue	Gritty	Salt or sugar	“             ”	Looks like sugar
  Red	Rocky, gritty	Sandy	“              ”
  Yellow	Powdery	White	“           ”

• Claims and Evidence: I claim that unknowns can have different properties by exploring using our senses. 

• Conclusion: Ask the students how we explored our unknowns. 

• Reflections: Does anyone have any questions about today's experiment? What did you learn today?