Our second graders are starting the New Year off with a whole lot of shaking.  Students are learning about the states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. In our science lab today, we went on a field trip by just sitting! Students had the opportunity to name and pick out different solids in our science lab.  We discovered that matter is everywhere!  Each student received a small sealed zip lock bag with two ice cubes. We began to use our prior knowledge of our scientific method skills to decide that ice cubes represented a solid.  Next, they used their hands to rub their bag between the palms of their hands. The students analyzed that their body produces heat, and it that it caused the ice cubes to turn into a liquid. We measured different amounts of liquid in cylinders, beakers, and the young scientists had to predict which one would hold the greatest amount of liquid. The outcome of our experiment was that any liquid would take the form of its container because the molecules are farther apart.