Face-Off Over Physical Changes!

The concept of physical change in matter is one that students learn about early in elementary school and continue to apply as they progress through science. Review this important idea with your fourth grader by playing this fun game that fosters creative thinking as well as scientific reasoning. All you need is paper and you’ll be on your way to a simple review of physical change. You and your fourth grader will have a blast coming up with ways to change paper – without really changing it at all!

What You Do:

1. Give your fourth grader a plain sheet of paper and ask him to show how he could change the paper and still have paper. (Fold it.)  Explain that this is a physical change because no chemical reaction has taken place and the paper is still paper.
2. Next, challenge your fourth-grader to a “Face-Off” over physical changes! Explain that you will take turns identifying one way the paper can be changed physically. In other words, what can you do to the paper and have it still be paper?
3. Sit across from each other and begin the challenge. Each of you should hold the paper while trying to brainstorm ways to change it. Here are some ideas:
   • make it a different color
   • make it a different texture (sticky)
   • make it move
   • make it a different temperature without freezing or steaming it
   • cut it and change its shape
   • stick more paper to it to make it longer
   • crunch it together so it makes noise
   • change its shape by forming it into a ball
4. Continue brainstorming ways to make physical changes until you run out of ideas. The person who gives the last physical change is the winner! Be sure to have prizes for the winner and a consolation prize for the runner up!
5. After you have finished experimenting with physical change, show your child what a chemical change is by carefully burning a piece of paper. Ask your fourth-grader to describe what happens to the paper. How is a chemical change different from a physical change? Discuss.