Everyday materials: The stuff that things are made of
Objectives
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Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made.
Identify and name a variety of everyday materials.
Plenary
Pupils should be familiar with the story of the three little pigs. Revise the story and discuss
the building materials used by the pigs. What did they make their houses out of? Which
house was the strongest? What else could they have made their houses out of?
Naming different materials
Show the pupils some samples of materials (e.g.: a scrap of cardboard rather than a cardboard
box) and pass them around the classroom, allowing students to touch, bend, tear and scratch
the materials, gaining a basic sense of their properties.
Pupils must learn: wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, rock. Pupils may also learn: brick,
leather, paper, cardboard, satin, rubber, wax, wool, foam, semi-precious stone, cotton, nylon.
Which materials can they name? Where have they come across these materials in their
everyday lives? Are some harder to find than others?
Using materials
Everything we own is made out of materials like these. Ask the pupils to choose items from
around the classroom. They should state what the object is and what material it is made from.
Some objects are made from more than one material. Also note that sometimes an item is
named after the material it is made from e.g.: glass, glasses, rubber.
Pupils should use their knowledge of basic materials to complete the worksheet.
Armour is metal, bow tie is satin, window is glass, bench is wood, pavement is rock, ring is
metal and diamond.
ACTIVITY: In pairs, pupils should walk around the school and try to find something made
out of each of the following materials: wood, plastic, glass, metal, rock. They should write
down what they have found.
ACTIVITY: Using cheap materials such as paper, card, foil, foam, balsa wood, plastic
sheeting and masking tape, pupils should design and construct basic model furniture. They
should be able to describe what materials their models are made from.
Pupils must note:
There are lots of materials and lots of ways of using them.
© Education Umbrella 2015
Possible extra-curricular questions
How do you change the shape of a hard material?
Some hard materials (such as glass or metal) can have their shape changed by heating them
up. While they are hot, they turn from a hard material into a soft liquid in a process called
melting. Other materials need to be carved. To carve a material like wood or rock, you need
to use a tool that is harder than the material being carved. As well as being beautiful,
diamond is also the hardest material in the world, so some craftspeople use knives with
diamond tips.
What materials are humans made out of?
Humans are very complicated and are made of many different materials. We are mostly made
of water, although our bones are made of calcium, a material you also find in milk and some
rocks. We contain a lot of carbon (carbon can be found in graphite, diamonds, oil, plastic,
wood and other plant and animal based materials) and also some types of metal. You cannot
make a human by mixing together these materials because humans are made in such a
complicated way; more complicated than any machine on Earth.
What are materials made from?
All materials are made from atoms, tiny bits of matter too small to see without an extremely
powerful telescope (an electron microscope). There are more than 100 types of atom, all with
their own properties and by putting them together in different ways, materials can be made
with different properties. Diamond and graphite are both made out of carbon atoms, but the
way that they are put together makes diamond hard and graphite soft.
© Education Umbrella 2015