What is Matter? Mini Book

This year we added a new theme to our curriculum:  States of Matter.  Scrambling for resources on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teacher will get you by...but after you do the unit the first time through, you realize creating your own materials to meet your teaching style and what you want for your classroom is the route you need to follow. It just takes time. We've been done with the States of Matter unit for a month or more and I finally ended up creating this.  I used my States of Matter Doodles clip art set as well as Educlips Matter clip art set to create this mini book.

You can find this HERE at my TPT store.

Here is the text:

Matter is all around us.

Everything on Earth is made of matter.

Matter can be a solid, liquid, or a gas.

A solid has its very own shape.

The particles are close together.

A liquid takes the shape of what it is in.

The tiny particles are spread out.

A gas takes the shape of what it is in and moves freely.

The tiny particles are spread out.

Water is a solid when it is frozen.

Water is a liquid when it is at the right temperature.

When water is heated, it turns into water vapor (gas). This is evaporation.

When water vapor gets cold it turns back to water. This is condensation.

The water we have on Earth keeps going around and around.

This is called the Water Cycle.

The water we have on Earth keeps going around and around.

This is called the Water Cycle.

Habitats Interactive Notebook

My first graders are loving the interactive notebooks I've put together for Space/Planets and our Continents/Oceans theme.  The facts/sentences included are the same as my Cut-Apart Sentences, but its been nice to have them paste the sentences into the notebook for a keepsake to take home at the end of the unit. After reading your favorite read aloud book about each of the habitats, watching videos, singing songs about the habitats, or brainstorming facts they remember, have your students piece together the fact for each habitat. Then have them color the black line illustrations.  This is what I've been doing:

• Gather students on carpet for read-aloud
• Students read individual Habitats Mini Books (you can find them in my TPT store)
• Habitats song 
• Brainstorm facts about each of the continents using the mimio for recall of details
• Build the cut-apart sentence in interactive notebook

You can find this HERE at my TPT store.

Facts/Sentences included:

• The animals in the grassland run very fast.
• The water in the ocean is very salty.
• The rain forest gets a lot of rain all year.
• The mountains can be rocky and covered in trees.
• The wetlands are made of fresh water.
• There are many kinds of trees in the forest.
• The arctic is very cold and covered in ice and snow.
• Scientists go to the Antarctic to study the weather.
• The desert is very hot and dry.