Materials Sorting Activity for Science Vocabulary

Thirty science words, from polystyrene to translucent, are sorted into two groups, materials and properties of materials, in a vocabulary sorting activity.
Year levels
Years 4–6
File type
PDF
Preparation
Print ready

Updated Sep 20, 2026

Topic
Sorting Activity, Science Sorting
Resource types
Activities
Preparation
Print ready

From the author

About this resource

Teaching science to our primary students opens them up to a whole new world of interests, but with a whole new take! They get to learn about the weather and its changes. They get to learn about animals and their offspring. They get to learn about natural wonders, such as volcanoes! There are so many engaging things for students to learn during science.

What You Get:

This is a Materials and Properties of Materials Sorting Activity that is ideal for primary students! The objective is to correctly understand and sort science terms.

How To Implement This Resource:

When students have gained a basic understanding of materials and properties, this will be a great activity to assess mastery. You will print off all 5 pages. Each page consists of 6 terms. For added durability, you can print these pages on card stock and laminate them. This is a great activity for small groups and science centres. Students will sort all 30 words into two separate categories – materials and properties of materials. There may be words students are not familiar with. Encourage students to look these terms up so they can sort as many words as possible correctly.

I hope you enjoy!

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In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Classify words as materials or as properties of materials

  • Define unfamiliar science vocabulary such as opaque and translucent

Teaching tips

  • Terms such as polystyrene and translucent may be new, and the activity expects students to look them up, so a dictionary or device should be within reach.

Skills covered

  • Classification — deciding whether each term names a material or describes a property

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