Teach Matter Vocabulary Words – Simple Tips and FREE video!
As teachers, we know the importance of teaching content vocabulary. It is essential for building Reading Comprehension AND Content Knowledge. Word Walls are one of my favorite teaching resources to use for teaching content vocabulary. This blog post will feature my States and Properties of Matter Word Wall resource, a FREE instrutional video that teaches 5 key science terms about Matter, and tips for teaching Matter Vocabulary quickly and easily!
This resource includes more than 50 full color Word Wall cards – each with an important term related to the States and Properties of Matter and a kid-friendly definition.
It’s perfect for grades 4 – 7!
The video teaches five of the important terms from the Word Wall, and uses the same images to reinforce students’ understanding of the concepts. The five Science vocabulary words featured in the video are: solid, liquid, gas, evaporate and precipitation.
Read on to learn more!
What is Included in this Matter Vocabulary Word Wall Resource?
This set includes 52 Word Cards – each with a definition and a high-quality photo to teach important Science vocabulary words related to the States and Properties of Matter. The photos add context to the definition, and often feature diagrams and scientific situations that bring the word to life! Your students will quickly master the important Science concepts with the help of these vocabulary cards.
Each Word Wall card is half a page, which makes them a perfect fit for a pocket chart or a teaching bulletin board. The font is large and easy-to-read so that students can access this Word Wall from anywhere in the room!
This resource includes these 52 Science Vocabulary Words. The * marks the terms included in the FREE video!
| solid* | gas* | liquid* |
| precipitation (of the water cycle)* | precipitation (in Chemistry) | evaporate* |
| buoyancy | condensation | states |
| property | melt | freeze |
| flow | texture | density |
| mass | melting point | boiling point |
| matter | freezing point | plasma |
| particle | atom | dense |
| diffusion | concentration | compress |
| conditions | material | mineral |
| substance | molecule | volume |
| insulate | dissolve | soluble |
| physical change | chemical change | mixture |
| solution | contract | expand |
| capacity | sift | filter |
| saturation | dilute | magnetism |
| conduct | reaction | react |
To make this truly easy, display the States and Properties of Matter terms in a pocket chart. This is the one that I use in my classroom – the cards fit perfectly in the pockets!
Why Teach Science Vocabulary Words?
The Science of Reading is clear. Students need to build content knowledge and language to be competent readers and writers. That means that upper elementary instruction should shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. If you haven’t seen Scarborough’s Reading Rope, check it out here. The link takes you to a presentation from the Reading League that explores the metaphor behind the graphic.
In a nutshell, Scarborough’s Reading Rope explains that these components must be woven together to achieve skilled reading:
- Word Recognition (which includes Phonological Awareness, Sight Words and Decoding)
- Language Comprehension (which includes Vocabulary, Content Knowledge, Language Structures, Verbal Reasoning Skills and Literacy Knowledge)
If all goes well, word recognition becomes increasingly automatic by the end of the primary grades, leaving intermediate more time to focus on language comprehension. That’s where word walls are so handy. With one simple lesson, you can teach vocabulary and increase content knowledge.
Wnat to know more? This is a topic I love, so here are a few of my favorite blog posts on the subject! 🙂
- Why Teach Vocabulary?
- Practicing Vocabulary with Beat the Clock
- Using Word Walls for Explicit Vocabulary Teaching
Tips for Teaching Matter Vocabulary
With everything on your plate, you need quick, effective strategies for teaching vocabulary and increasing content knowledge. Here are two of my favorite ways to teach States and Properties of Matter Vocabulary.
Introducing New Vocabulary Words with Hangman
The benefit of this game is that you can do it anytime. All you need is the list of words that you want to teach, and a chalkboard or whiteboard. It takes just a few minutes, and engages students in thinking about how words are spelled and read.
One twist I like to use for maximum engagement is to have students work in pairs. Instead of you running the game from the board, pair students up. One student has a whiteboard and faces the front of the room. The other student turns their back so they cannot see the front. Then you write the target word on the board (if you have the Matter Word Wall, you can just project it – easy peasy!)
Student 1 runs the Hangman Game while Student 2 makes the guesses. This ensures that all students are engaged and thinking about the words. When one student guesses the word, they switch places, and move to a new word.
Dive deeply into Matter Vocabulary with Science Notebooks
Science notebooks are an effective tool for exploring the meaning of scientific terms. A simple graphic organizer like this one can really help students understand the nuances of a term. (You can find this in my Matter Vocabulary Resource, which includes 10 activities for practicing terms related to the states and properties of matter.)
I recommend only going this deeply with a few, key terms. Overkill on this graphic organizer exhaust students and waste time. For example, the science term “dissolve” can be tricky for students. But pop it into this graphic organizer and it becomes much clearer. The Word Cards in the Word Wall are a great support for the illustration, and of course, the definition is already there for students. When they combine that info with the knowledge that synonyms include liquefy and melt and antonyms include solidify and congeal, they will develop a deep and lasting understanding of the meaning of the word.
This is the Word Wall Card from the resource.
I hope your creative mind got a little food for thought with this blog post. If you are teaching Matter soon and need some hands-on, engaging lesson plans, be sure to check out this FREE resource! It includes 44-pages of lesson plans, including teaching supports, student reflection sheets, a science investigation, a writing extension and more!
Love This Matter Word Wall resource? Check out these related products!
Click to check out these resources and more in my TPT store! I’m always adding more Word Walls, so check back often, and if there is a Word Wall you would like to see, let me know!
Ready for the FREE Matter Vocabulary Video?
You can see this video, and many other instructional videos, at Ms. Cotton’s Corner on YouTube. Enjoy!
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Happy Teaching!
Susan