Physical Science · Grade 5 Mr. Mohamed Fawzy Week 1 — The Particles of Matter
Week 1 · Unit Opener

The Particles
of Matter

You, your desk, your water bottle, and the air you just breathed are all built from the same kind of tiny pieces.

Taught by Mr. Mohamed Fawzy
ReadLookDoCheck
LookStart here

Three questions to keep in your head today

  • If I cut a piece of paper in half, then in half again, forever — do I ever reach a piece that cannot be cut?
  • An empty cup looks empty. Is anything actually inside it?
  • How can ice, water, and steam all be the exact same stuff?

By the end of this week you will be able to answer all three. Hold on to your first guesses — scientists call a first guess a hypothesis, and a wrong hypothesis is still useful.

? cut · cut · cut · cut... where does it stop?
Greek thinkers asked this 2,400 years ago. Their word for "cannot be cut" is where we get the word atom.
ReadCore idea 1 of 4

Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass

Look around your classroom. The desk, the window glass, the marker in my hand, the sandwich in your bag — these are all made of different materials, and every one of them is matter.

Test 1 · Does it take up space?

Matter fills a place. If you put a rock in a bag, the bag bulges. Nothing else can be in that exact spot at the same time. Scientists call the amount of space something takes up its volume.

Test 2 · Does it have mass?

Matter has "stuff" in it. Mass is how much matter an object contains. A bowling ball has more mass than a beach ball of the same size, because more matter is packed inside it.

Careful Some things are real but are not matter. Sunlight, sound, and heat are forms of energy. You cannot put sunlight on a scale.
DoClass sort · 4 minutes

Matter or not matter?

Use the two tests: takes up space and has mass. Both must be yes. Tap your answer for each one.

Teacher note Steam and clouds are the two that spark argument. Both are made of tiny liquid water droplets and water vapor — real matter you can collect and weigh. Sound is the trap: it needs matter to travel through, but it is a wave of motion, not matter itself.
ReadCore idea 2 of 4

All matter is built from atoms

Every piece of matter is made of tiny particles called atoms. Atoms are the building blocks of everything — like LEGO bricks, except there are only about 100 different kinds of brick in the whole universe.

Atoms are far too small to see, even with a classroom microscope. So how do we know they are there? Because of what they do. They take up space, they push on things, and when we heat them up they move faster. We can measure all of that.

Why we trust invisible things

You cannot see the wind either. You see the flag move. Scientists build knowledge from evidence, not only from what their eyes can see directly.

a copper wire copper atoms stacked in rows Zoom = 100,000,000 ×
Real instruments called scanning tunneling microscopes have taken images almost exactly like this one.
LookInteractive · zoom in five times

How small is an atom, really?

Start with your own hand and zoom in step by step. Watch the numbers on the left.

Number to remember About half a million carbon atoms could sit side by side across the thickness of one sheet of paper.
CheckQuick check · no score

Quick check: matter and atoms

Say your answer out loud before you tap. Wrong answers are where the learning happens.

DoExperiment 1 · 10 minutes

Experiment: proving air is matter

Materials

  • A clear plastic cup
  • A paper towel
  • A large bowl or sink filled with water

Steps

  1. Crumple the paper towel and push it firmly into the bottom of the cup so it will not fall out.
  2. Predict: if I push this cup straight down into the water, will the paper towel get wet? Write your prediction down.
  3. Turn the cup upside down. Push it straight down into the water until it is fully under. Hold it there, then lift it straight back out.
  4. Pull out the paper towel and feel it.

What happened and why

The towel stays dry. The cup was never empty — it was full of air, and air is matter. Air atoms and molecules take up space inside the cup, so the water has nowhere to go. Water can only enter if the air gets out first.

Try it again: tilt the cup underwater and you will see bubbles escape. Air leaves, water rushes in, towel gets soaked. That bubble is your evidence.

trapped air dry towel Air is in the way Two kinds of matter cannot fill the same space at the same time.
Diagram: air molecules hold the water line down inside the cup.
ReadCore idea 3 of 4

Atoms come in different kinds, called elements

An element is matter made of only one kind of atom. Gold is nothing but gold atoms. Oxygen gas is nothing but oxygen atoms. Scientists organize all the known elements on a chart called the periodic table.

H
Hydrogen
The lightest atom. Two of them ride in every water molecule.
O
Oxygen
About 1 in every 5 particles you breathe in.
C
Carbon
The backbone of every living thing, including you.
Fe
Iron
In steel bridges and in your blood.
Al
Aluminum
Soda cans and kitchen foil.
Au
Gold
Never rusts. That is why it stays shiny for centuries.
Teacher note Grade 5 does not need protons and electrons yet. Keep the message at: different element = different kind of atom = different properties. That sets up Week 2 perfectly.
LookCore idea 4 of 4

Atoms join together to make molecules

Atoms rarely travel alone. They link up into groups called molecules. Change which atoms join, or how many, and you get a completely different material.

O H H H₂O
Water. Two hydrogen, one oxygen. Drinkable, and covers most of Earth.
C O O CO₂
Carbon dioxide. You breathe it out. Plants take it in.
O O O₂
Oxygen gas. The oxygen you breathe travels in pairs.
Think about it Water is H₂O. Hydrogen peroxide is H₂O₂ — just one extra oxygen atom. One you drink; the other bleaches hair and cleans wounds. Small change, huge difference.
LookSame atoms, different arrangement

Solid, liquid, gas: it is all about how the particles are arranged

Ice, water, and steam are all H₂O. The molecules are identical. What changes is how tightly they are packed and how fast they move.

SOLID
Packed tight in a pattern. Particles only wiggle in place, so a solid keeps its own shape.
LIQUID
Still touching, but free to slide. A liquid pours and takes the shape of its container.
GAS
Far apart and flying fast. A gas spreads out to fill any space it is given.
DoParticle lab · drag the slider

Heat it up and watch the particles decide

These are water molecules in a sealed box. Move the temperature slider and watch what the particles do. Notice: you are not adding or removing any particles — the same molecules are always there.

SOLID · ICE -20 °C -4 °F SPEED: LOW

Two numbers worth memorizing

Water freezes at 0 °C (32 °F) and boils at 100 °C (212 °F). Stop the slider right at each number and watch the change happen.

The rule underneath it all

Adding heat gives particles more energy, so they move faster and spread farther apart. Removing heat slows them down and lets them lock together.

DoExperiment 2 · 8 minutes

Experiment: finding the empty space between particles

Materials

  • Two identical clear cups
  • Dry rice or dry beans
  • Salt or sugar
  • A marker

Steps

  1. Fill cup A to the halfway line with rice. Mark the level with the marker.
  2. Predict: if I pour a half cup of salt into the rice, will the level rise to full?
  3. Pour the salt in slowly, then tap and shake the cup gently for 30 seconds.
  4. Read the new level against your mark.

What happened and why

The level ends up below full. Half plus half did not make one whole. The small salt grains slipped down into the gaps between the big rice grains.

Particles work the same way. When you stir sugar into tea, the sugar molecules fit into the spaces between the water molecules — which is why the water level barely rises. Matter is not as solidly packed as it looks.

start line salt fills the gaps rice only BEFORE AFTER
The gaps were always there — you just could not see them.
ReadParticles explain your day

Four everyday things this idea explains

Why a balloon shrinks outside in winter

Cold air removes energy from the gas particles inside. They slow down, hit the balloon wall less hard, and the balloon pulls in. Bring it back into the warm room and it puffs out again — nothing leaked.

Why you can smell cookies from the next room

Gas particles carrying the smell fly out of the oven in every direction and spread through the air until some reach your nose. Gases always spread to fill their space.

Why hot cocoa melts sugar faster than iced tea

Hot water molecules move faster, so they bump into the sugar harder and more often. Faster particles mean faster mixing.

Why a sidewalk has lines cut in it

When concrete warms up, its particles vibrate harder and push apart, so the slab grows slightly. The gaps give it room to expand instead of cracking.

Teacher note Ask students for a fifth example from their own home before revealing any of these. The goal is transfer, not recall.
CheckTap a card to flip it

Week 1 vocabulary

Cover the definition, say it in your own words, then flip to compare.

CheckEnd of week quiz · 8 questions

End of week quiz

0 / 8 Answer each question once. Read the explanation even when you are right.
ReadExit ticket

What you can now explain

  • Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.
  • All matter is made of tiny particles called atoms, far too small to see.
  • Matter made of one kind of atom is an element; atoms joined in groups are molecules.
  • Air is matter, even though it is invisible — the dry paper towel proved it.
  • Solid, liquid, and gas are the same particles arranged and moving differently.
  • Heat makes particles move faster and spread apart; cold does the opposite.

Exit ticket · write three sentences

  1. Name one thing in this room and one thing that is not matter.
  2. Explain to a 2nd grader why the paper towel stayed dry.
  3. Write one question you still have about atoms.

Coming next · Week 2

Properties of Matter. Now that you know everything is made of matter, we will learn all the ways to describe it: color, hardness, weight, texture, smell, and whether it is a solid, liquid, or gas.

Bring one object from home that is hard to describe in only one word.

wk 1 wk 2 wk 6