What Are the Functional and Structural Properties of Materials?

Functional and structural properties represent two ways in which materials enable an object to function. Functional properties involve real-world behaviour, such as waterproofing or heat resistance, while structural properties describe essential characteristics, such as hardness or density. Teaching students to discriminate between these helps them understand design choices and assess the suitability of materials for specific purposes.

This set of Functional and Structural Properties of Materials Worksheets includes five high‑challenge, upper‑primary worksheets, each designed to build scientific reasoning and vocabulary related to the materials we use every day.

Four Functional and Structural Properties of Materials Worksheets

Help your Year 5–6 students deepen their understanding of how materials are chosen for specific purposes with this Functional and Structural Properties of Materials Worksheet Pack. These four worksheets guide students to analyse real‑world objects and situations, then identify the properties that allow each product to perform its intended function.

With these Functional and Structural Properties of Materials Worksheets, your students will move beyond simply naming materials and begin thinking like designers and engineers, evaluating how structural and functional properties influence material selection in everyday life. The worksheets included are described below:

• Fix the Design Disaster Worksheet – Students take on the role of a manufacturer and identify/fix design errors that caused products to fail due to improper materials. Students identify the properties needed and recommend a more suitable material.
• Reading Passage & Vocabulary Cloze Worksheet – Students read a short passage and use an accompanying table to locate the meanings of different structural and functional properties, then use the word meanings to fill in the blanks in the sentences.
• Structural/Functional Object Investigation Worksheet – Students look at an object, describe its function, and then tell the structural and functional properties that are needed in order for the object to perform its function.
• Functional and Structural Properties Cut and Sort – Students cut out a variety of material properties (strength, flexibility, density, etc) and sort them based on whether they are structural or functional.

Download These Structural and Functional Properties Worksheets Today

This ready‑to‑print set of Structural and Functional Properties Worksheets includes:

• 5 upper‑primary worksheets
• clear, curriculum‑aligned prompts
• real‑world object examples
• And an answer key for easy grading!

This resource is available in both PDF and editable Google Slides formats. To get your copy, click the dropdown arrow on the download button and select your preferred file type.

More Resources for Teaching About the Properties of Materials

Looking for more resources to help you teach your students about the properties of materials? We’ve got you covered! We recommend pairing these material property printables with one of the following:

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