3. Solids, liquids, gases, and how to love nature

The lesson, step by step

1. Hook: who made the drops?

   Breathe on a cold window or mirror, then watch the mist turn into tiny drops.

   Read Cissy's story on page 14.

   "Auntie," she said, "what for it rain inside?"

   SayWater was hiding in your breath, too small to see. The cold glass gathered it into drops.

2. Read together

   Read the paragraph on solids, liquids and gases on pages 15 and 16.

   All matter in the world is made up of minute parts or particles

   In a solid the bits are locked tight. In a liquid they slide round each other. In a gas they fly apart and spread everywhere.

3. Try it: three kinds of stuff

   Hold up the block: it keeps its shape. Pour some water onto a plate: it keeps its amount but spreads flat. Blow up the balloon a little, then let some air out: the air takes the shape of whatever holds it, and escapes if it can.

   Ask: Which one would fill the whole room if you let it go? (The gas.)

4. Try it: where did the sugar go?

   Stir the sugar into the glass of warm water until it disappears.

   If I dissolve sugar in water, though it disappears it still remains sugar, and does not join itself to the water.

   Taste a drop: still sweet! Pour a little onto the saucer and leave it in a warm place. In a few days the water dries away and the sugar is left behind.

5. Watch only: potassium on water

   Watch only: don't try this at home. Buckley dropped a piece of the metal potassium onto water:

   See how it rolls round and round, fizzing violently, with a blue flame burning round it, and at last goes off with a pop.

   The potassium grabbed part of the water and made something new (potash) and so much heat that the gas it let out caught fire. Potassium can burn skin and explode. If you like, look up a video of a teacher doing it behind a safety screen.

6. Love nature, not just facts

   Read or tell pages 19 to 23: Buckley copies a dry textbook description of coral, then tells it as the story of tiny jelly animals building stone homes in the sea. She says knowing your mother's face is more than knowing she has brown eyes.

   Ask: Which description makes you want to see coral?

7. Tell it back and draw

   Your child explains solid, liquid and gas with an example of each from the house. Then draw three boxes: bits locked tight (solid), bits sliding (liquid), bits flying apart (gas).