Materials Teaching Resources
Explore the properties of materials and where they are found with your students this school year! Explore worksheets, hands-on activities, lesson plans and more teacher-created resources for teaching students about materials found in nature and made by humans.
The printable and digital resources in this collection are aligned with the Australian science curriculum, and each one has undergone a careful review by a member of the Teach Starter teacher team.
Is this your first year teaching about materials? Or perhaps you're simply looking for some fresh information and ways to teach this science topic? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a materials definition to share with your students, plus explanations of the differences between matural and man-made materials!
What Are Materials? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Do you need a way to explain what materials are to your students? Here's a helpful definition from our teacher team that you can add to your lessons:
A material is a substance that is used to make an object. For example, a desk can be made from wood. Wood is the material.
Materials can come from nature, but they can also be man-made.
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Introducing Natural and Processed Materials
A 60 minute lesson in which students will examine and understand the differences between natural and processed materials and their uses.
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Stretch, Bend and Twist – I Think You've Got the Gist
A 60-minute lesson designed for students to use their knowledge of materials to predict and identify whether materials stretch, bend or twist.
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Terrific Twisting
A 60-minute lesson designed to explain how certain materials can be twisted.
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Sensational Stretching
A 60-minute lesson designed to explain how certain materials can be stretched.
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Marvellous Materials
A 60-minute lesson in which students recap their prior knowledge of materials and their physical features.
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A Mixture of Materials
A 60 minute lesson in which students analyse objects made of different materials and explain why those materials were used based on their properties.
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Choosing Materials That Work!
A 60 minute lesson in which students understand that some materials are more appropriate to use for certain objects or products than others based on the properties they possess.
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Sorting Scientists
A 60 minute lesson in which students investigate and sort materials based on their properties.
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Properties of Materials
A 60 minute lesson in which students develop an understanding of the properties of materials that make them useful for specific purposes.
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Identifying Types of Materials
A 60 minute lesson in which students identify the material objects are made of and sort them in various ways.
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Describing Materials
A 60 minute lesson in which students explore the properties of materials and develop vocabulary to describe them.
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Natural and Processed Materials Video – Solid Wood vs Laminate
Explore natural and processed materials with this science experiment video perfect for your Year 4 science unit!
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Cooling Materials Down Video
Explore how cooling affects different materials using this science demonstration video perfect for your early years Chemical Sciences unit!
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Adding Heat to Materials Video
Explore how different materials are affected by heat energy using this science demonstration video perfect for your early years Chemical Sciences unit!
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Properties of Materials Video – Objects That Stretch
Explore materials that can be stretched with your students using this science demonstration video perfect for your early years Chemical Sciences unit!
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Properties of Materials Video - Objects That Twist
Explore materials that can twist with your students using this science demonstration video perfect for your early years Chemical Sciences unit!
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Properties of Materials Video - Bendy Objects
Explore bendy objects with your students using this science demonstration video perfect for your early years Chemical Sciences unit!