(upbeat music) - Good morning, my dear sweet, beautiful, brilliant students of Arkansas.

Today we're gonna investigate and explore how to sort materials by the way they look, feel, and act.

How do you know if something is a solid or liquid?

Seems like a silly question, right?

Well, today we're gonna be looking at the characteristics of solids and liquids to classify matter.

Just a reminder, matter is anything we see, feel, or that takes up space, and solids are things that keep their shape.

Can you think of some things that would be classified or grouped as solids?

A chair, a phone, a pencil, yeah, and a hat, all of those are solids.

Now liquids, they flow and take the shape of their container.

Examples are things like water, or juice, or soda.

Let's take a look at this cup of flour.

Ooh.

What do you notice about it?

All right, I'm gonna pour this in here.

Now, when I look at it, it's white and powdery, but when I poured it, did it pour?

Does it now take the shape of its container?

Is it a solid or liquid?

Okay, what about this rice?

Hm.

What do you notice about it?

See if you can see it a little better if I pour it in here.

Okay so, it's also white, but it's kind of like an off white.

The grains, I don't know, they keep their shape, it poured in here.

Now, is it the shape of its new container?

Would you say that is a solid or liquid?

Ooh, let's look at these M&Ms.

I want some M&Ms, I love M&Ms.

Okay, alright so.

(M&M's clattering) What do you think?

You can see that it is hard and it keeps it shape, so it is a solid.

It's the same thing as the flour and the rice.

Flour is actually a collection of very small, solid particles and collections of pieces that may have properties that the individual pieces do not have.

Powders and collections of pieces can flow like liquids.

So what do you think will happen if I keep these M&Ms in my hand for a really long time or if I close my hand while they're in here?

Yeah, they will melt, so it would go from a solid to a liquid.

Can you think of any way I can change it back to a solid?

You're right, I could put it in the fridge or the freezer.

Matter is all around us and it's always changing.

See if you can think of some other things that melt and then can be frozen back to a solid.

(upbeat music) All right guys, that's it, have an absolutely wonderful rest of your day.

See you later.