Science Clubhouse Workshop – 2nd Grade: Classifying Materials

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a game-changer for science at the elementary level. They are performance standards – the students must “do science” in order to show attainment. Because they need to be worked into the very busy day in an elementary classroom, it is imperative the science standards be integrated with reading and writing workshops and not treated as a separate subject. The Science Clubhouse Workshop series does just that. As a matter of fact, this lesson is also included as a part of a larger, 10 lesson + science journal compilation sold here on TPT. Search for: Science Clubhouse Workshop 2nd Grade Compilation (10 lessons and Journal).

This lesson about Classifying Materials integrates science, reading, and writing standards. It is a lesson about describing and classifying different kinds of materials by their observable properties. Litter will be used to populate the “materials” categories being described and classified.
1. Use Wartville Wizard as a Read-Aloud book accompanied by accountable talk from readers (students ask each other about their thinking and build on the contributions of others as they cite evidence, ask for clarification, and mention other student’s comments).
2. Identify, describe, classify, and sort “litter materials” in an investigation, writing observation notes in Science and Engineering Journals.
3. Write and propose a recycling program for Wartville including a step-by-step plan for identifying, classifying, and sorting different types of litter.


Keyterms: Edvance21, Gail Wortmann, Second Grade, 2nd Grade, CC, CCSS, Common Core, Writing, Reading, Science, Engineering, NGSS 2-PS1-1, Next Generation Science Standards 2-PS1-1