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Let’s Build (Materials) – What Materials Can We Find?

Objectives

To describe common materials in terms of their properties.

To identify, name, describe, sort and group common materials, including wood, plastic, metal, glass, rock, paper and fabric.

Resources

Vocabulary

Today's Lesson

Assignment

This lesson works towards Assignment 5. Please access the assignment for details about what you will need to submit to your student's Wolsey Hall tutor.

What to Get Ready

Before the session, set up three zones or areas, each prepared with one of the activities mentioned in the 📄 Material Zones sheet. (Where it states to work with a partner, you will need to take on this role.)

Each table will need a selection of objects made from different materials. In addition to the objects, Table 1 will also need sticky notes and pencils, Table 2 will need an opaque bag and Table 3 will need a large book (or partition).

Speaking and Listening

Explain to your student that there are three activities set up and that they will have the chance to do all three.

Ask your student to choose an activity to work on first. Briefly explain about each zone before your student chooses. The Material Zones sheet gives an explanation of each zone, but you will need to read this out first and make sure they understand.

New Learning

Explain that all things are made from materials. Establish that this does not mean that objects are made from cloth or fabric (material) but that the word 'material' refers to the matter from which a thing is made.

Encourage your student to use the word 'material' when discussing the objects, and also the terms ‘wood’, ‘plastic’, ‘glass’ and ‘metal’.

Main Activity

When your student has had a turn at the activities, ask them to tell you about one thing that has surprised them, or something they have learnt, from the material zones. It may be that an object is made from a material they didn't expect, for example, or that it is difficult to describe certain materials. Record or film your student doing this, as an option to submit as part of Assignment 5.

Play I-Spy the Material with your student, by looking around the room and spotting materials starting with a certain letter.

For example, you could say, ‘I-Spy a material beginning with m.’ Your student will need to look around the room to find a material which begins with the letter ‘m’. This item could be a metal spoon. It is then your student's turn to start.

If your student needs an extra challenge, you could move on to spotting materials with certain properties or features (for example, rough/smooth or flat/bumpy).

Ask your student to consider why objects are made from different materials. What useful properties do those materials have to make them the best for the job?

Apply

Give your student a camera or a piece of paper and tell them that you are going to challenge them to find a material and then to record it. You may choose to set them a time limit for this challenge.

Say: ‘You have five minutes to find three objects made of metal and to sketch them on a page in your sketchbook.’

Next, place four hoops on the floor and label them 'wood', 'plastic', 'metal' and 'glass'. Ask your student to help you tidy away all the objects on the tables, by placing them in the appropriate hoops.

Challenge your student to notice that some objects are made from more than one material and to work out how they might resolve that (by overlapping the hoops).

Finish the lesson by asking your student to consider these fun questions:

What would the classroom be like if the tables were made of jelly?
Or if the chairs were chocolate?
Why are certain materials used to make these items?