What's the matter?

Hello again friends,
Did you think I forgot about this blog? I didn't but sadly right before Christmas my computer crashed taking with it all the pictures I had been gathering up to post when Grad school calmed down. But I am back and in an effort to make up for lost time I am going to set myself a goal to post at least once a week. Even if it is a short post.

So today in first grade we started studying the states of matter!!!
I am so excited. We talked about solid, liquid, and gas (this one got a few giggles, can't imagine why). We also talked about what makes the 3 states of matter different. How can water be a solid, liquid, and a gas?

Here's what we learned:

Solid states of matter have tightly packed molecules so they hold their shape even when they could spread out.

Liquid molecules spread out to conform to the shape of their container.

Gases on the other hand do not have a fixed volume. They expand to fill the available space (Like the air in a balloon.)

After we had talked about the 3 main states of matter we got out our Science glossaries and defined solid, liquid, and gas. We also defined matter as "anything that takes up space and has mass".

To begin our snowman science experiment we filled balloons with water and put them in the freezer. Tomorrow we will find out what exactly has happened to them.