Properties of Mixtures Activity: 8 Hands-On Stations for Teaching How to Separate Mixtures (TEKS 5.6B)

Chris Kesler · 8 min read

Hand a 5th grader a cup with sand, gravel, and water all mixed together. Then hand them a strainer, a coffee filter, some cheesecloth, and an empty container. Tell them to get the water out. What happens next is the whole standard. Some kids pour through the strainer first and lose the sand. Some try the coffee filter and clog it. Some pick the rocks out one by one. By the end, every group has learned something the other groups didn't, and they all know that the way you separate a mixture depends on what the mixture is made of.

That's TEKS 5.6B. It asks 5th graders to investigate and compare the properties of mixtures, and to demonstrate that mixtures can be separated based on the physical properties of their components. This is the year they meet "mixture" as a science word instead of just a kitchen word.

The Properties of Mixtures Station Lab for TEKS 5.6B walks them through six separation techniques (sorting, sifting, filtration, magnetic attraction, floatation, and evaporation), hands them a sand-rocks-water mixture to actually separate, and gives them eleven real-world reference cards from gold panning to salt evaporation flats. By the end, they can name the right technique for any mixture you throw at them.

⏱ 1–2 class periods 📓 5th Grade Science 🧪 TEKS 5.6B 🎯 Built-in differentiation 💻 Print or Digital

8 hands-on stations for teaching properties of mixtures

A station lab is a student-led activity where small groups rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) at their own pace during one to two class periods. You become a facilitator instead of a lecturer. You walk around, spot-check, and break misconceptions while kids work through the rotation.

The Properties of Mixtures Station Lab has four input stations (where students take in new information on how mixtures form and how to separate them) and four output stations (where they show what they learned). Here's what's at each one.

📷 Image slot 1 — add screenshot

📷 Image slot 2 — add screenshot

4 input stations: how students learn about mixtures

🎬 Watch It! —

A short YouTube video (starting at the 2:00 mark) walks students through three separation methods. Three questions on the answer sheet check whether students caught it: what physical property a strainer uses to separate a mixture, the best method for separating a dissolved substance from water, and how solubility can be used to separate mixtures. Visual learners come alive here because they get to see filtering, evaporation, and sorting in real time before they try it themselves.

📖 Read It! —

A one-page passage called "Separating Mixtures in Everyday Life" uses a pizza-with-olives scenario as the running example. Pick the olives off (sorting), pan for gold (sifting), use a magnet on iron filings, skim oil off water (floatation based on relative density), boil salt water (evaporation). Vocabulary is bolded throughout (mixture, sorting, sifting, relative density, evaporation). Three multiple-choice questions follow, plus a vocabulary section. Comes in two reading levels (Dependent and Modified) plus a Spanish version.

🔬 Explore It! —

This is the heart of the lab. Each group gets a single mixture of sand, rocks, and water in a container, plus a toolkit: strainer, cheesecloth, coffee filters, funnels, and extra containers. Their job is to design a procedure to separate everything. Six questions walk them through it: explain your procedure for the rocks, did it work, explain your procedure for the sand, did it work, were you able to get all three components apart, and describe a real-world situation where solids need to be separated from water. This is where you find out who has actually been listening, because the design choices reveal everything.

💻 Research It! —

Eleven reference cards cover six real-world separation scenarios with photographs: hand-sorting colored candy, a multi-stage water filter, sifting compost with a sieve, magnetic attraction pulling iron filings off a plate, salt deposits from evaporated seawater, and oil floating on sand-and-water layers. Two text cards explain that mixtures keep their physical properties before and after mixing, and the techniques tie back to those properties. Three questions push deeper: explain how physical properties determine the separation method, describe how a water filter and saltwater evaporation work, and design a procedure to clean water that has sand, salt, and iron filings mixed in.

📷 Featured station deep-dive — add screenshot of the Explore It! task card

4 output stations: how students show what they learned

📋 Organize It! —

A two-column card sort matches six separation techniques to the photo that shows each one in action. Sorting goes with a pile of mixed Legos. Magnetic attraction goes with a magnet pulling black filings off a dish. Sifting goes with someone shaking a flat sieve full of debris. Floatation goes with a clear glass showing oil resting on top of sand and water. Filtration goes with someone pouring through a paper coffee filter. Evaporation goes with steam rising from a hot spring. Easy to spot-check at a glance, and the visuals lock the vocabulary down faster than any flashcard could.

🎨 Illustrate It! —

Students draw three unique mixtures and label each with a different separation method they would use to take it apart. Sorting, sifting, filtration, magnetic attraction, floatation, and evaporation are all on the table, and each method can only be used once across the three sketches. This forces students to think creatively about what kinds of mixtures actually exist in their lives that match each technique. The constraint is the magic here; kids who would otherwise draw three salt-water cups have to come up with something new.

✍️ Write It! —

Three open-ended questions in complete sentences: how would you separate a mixture of salt and water, what happens to the physical properties of the ingredients in a mixture (they stay the same, which is the entire reason separation works), and why do filtration, evaporation, and magnetism only work for certain mixtures. The third question is the one to watch. Kids who get it can explain that a coffee filter won't catch dissolved salt and a magnet won't pull wood, so the technique has to match the property.

📝 Assess It! —

Three multiple-choice questions plus a fill-in-the-paragraph using the five Read It! vocabulary words (mixture, sorting, sifting, relative density, evaporation). The multiple choice covers which property lets iron filings separate from sand (magnetism), what property of oil lets it float on water (low density relative to water), and which technique uses size differences (sifting). The paragraph uses a salad scenario to weave all five vocabulary words into a single cohesive answer. If you're grading the lab, this is the easiest station to grade.

Bonus Challenge It! station for early finishers

🏆 Challenge It! —

Four optional extensions: create a paper advertisement or 30-second infomercial selling one of the six separation methods, write a cooking blog post that includes a recipe (a mixture) with tips on how to separate parts if you mix the wrong ingredients, rewrite a nursery rhyme so it teaches younger kids about mixtures, or go on a mixture scavenger hunt around the classroom or home and list 10 real mixtures with the best separation method for each. Requires teacher approval before they start.

How this fits into a complete Properties of Mixtures unit

This Station Lab is the Explore day of our full Properties of Mixtures Complete 5E Lesson for TEKS 5.6B. The complete two-week unit follows the 5E method of instruction and includes an Engage hook, the Properties of Mixtures Station Lab for Explore, PowerPoint slides and interactive notebook pages for Explain, student choice projects to Elaborate, and an Evaluate assessment.

Most 5th-grade teachers grab the full 5E because the Station Lab lands hardest with the days around it. But if you just need a strong hands-on day on mixtures and how to separate them, the Station Lab on its own does the job.

Two options

Full 5E Lesson $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Properties of Mixtures Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab $7.20 Get the Station Lab

Materials needed to teach properties of mixtures

Materials beyond what's in the download:

A sand-rocks-water mixture per group for the Explore It! station. About a half-cup of dry sand, a handful of small rocks or pea gravel, and a cup of water in a clear container. Mix it up right before class so it's a real challenge. Aquarium gravel from a pet store works great for the rocks.
Separation toolkit per group: one mesh strainer or colander, a small square of cheesecloth (paint strainer bags from the hardware store are cheap and reusable), 2–3 paper coffee filters, a plastic funnel, and 2–3 empty clear cups or containers to catch the separated parts.
Paper towels or a small towel per group for spills (this station will get water on the table, that's part of it).
Colored pencils or markers for the Illustrate It! station.
Pencils and the printed answer sheets (included)
A device with internet for the Watch It! station

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 5.6B —

Investigate and compare the properties of mixtures including increases or decreases in amounts of substances, and demonstrate that mixtures can be separated based on the physical properties of their components.

See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 5th grade physical science

Time: One to two class periods (45–110 minutes total). Plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab.

Common student misconceptions this lab fixes

"If I mix something into water and it disappears, the stuff is gone."
5th graders see salt go into water, stir, and watch the salt seem to vanish. Their intuition says the salt is gone. The Research It! salt-evaporation card and the Read It! passage both spell it out: heat the salt water and the water evaporates, leaving the salt behind. The salt was there the whole time, just broken into pieces too small to see. Boiling pots of saltwater (or even letting a small dish of it sit in a sunny window for a week) is one of the cleanest demonstrations a teacher can run. By the time kids hit the Write It! salt-and-water question, they know: dissolved doesn't mean gone, it just means harder to see.
"A coffee filter or strainer can separate anything from water."
The Explore It! station with sand, rocks, and water is the trap that catches this one. Most groups try filtration first because it feels universal. Rocks get caught by the strainer just fine. Sand gets caught by a coffee filter or cheesecloth. But salt? A coffee filter is no help, because the salt particles slip right through with the water. The Research It! card on water filters spells out that filters work based on size, so anything smaller than the filter's holes passes through. By the time they reach the Research It! sand-salt-iron-filings question, they have to combine three different techniques (magnet first, then filter, then evaporate) because no single tool covers all three.
"A mixture is permanent. Once you mix things together, you can't really get them back."
This one comes from real life. Mix paint colors together and you cannot un-mix them. Stir cake batter and the ingredients are gone forever. So 5th graders assume all mixing is permanent. The Read It! passage opens with picking olives off a pizza, which immediately breaks the assumption. The Research It! card on physical properties of mixtures hammers it home: the substances keep their properties before and after mixing, which is exactly why you can pull them back apart. The Organize It! card sort gives them six different ways to do it. By the end, they know that mixtures are temporary and chemical changes (like baking a cake or rusting iron) are the actually-permanent ones.

What you get with this Properties of Mixtures activity

📷 Inside-the-product — add screenshot of Read It passage or sample answer sheet

When you buy the Station Lab, you get a single download with everything you need:

Print version at two reading levels (Dependent for on-grade, Modified for additional support) plus a Spanish Read It! passage
Digital version as PowerPoint files (works in Google Slides too) at both levels — for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom
Teacher Directions and Answer Key for both versions, all keys included
Station task cards ready to print, laminate, and drop in baskets at each station
Reference cards for the Research It! station (11 cards covering real-world examples: candy sorting, water filters, compost sieves, magnetic attraction, salt evaporation flats, and oil floating on water)
Sort cards for the Organize It! station (six separation techniques matched to photographs)
Student answer sheets for each level

Tips for teaching properties of mixtures in your 5th grade classroom

Two things make this lab go smoother the first time:

1. Mix the sand-rocks-water in front of them.

Pre-mixing the Explore It! containers ahead of time is fine, but if you have an extra two minutes, mix one batch in front of the class right before they rotate in. Watching the sand cloud the water and the rocks settle to the bottom plants the question "how do I get this apart?" in their heads before they ever sit down. It also helps that they know the mixture is real and not pre-made, which makes the procedure design feel like a genuine puzzle instead of a worksheet step.

2. Stock extra coffee filters and have a spill towel ready.

The Explore It! station will spill. Every group will tip a funnel, overshoot a cup, or rip a coffee filter that's too saturated. None of these are problems, but the rotation slows down if you're scrambling for new supplies. Drop a stack of 10–12 coffee filters at the station (not 2 or 3), have one small towel per table, and put down a tray or cookie sheet under the work area to catch overflow. The lab cleans up in 90 seconds at the end instead of 10 minutes.

Get this Properties of Mixtures activity

Properties of Mixtures Station Lab for 5th grade physical science — TEKS 5.6B

Buy the Station Lab — $7.20

Or if you want the full two-week experience with the Engage hook, Explain day, Elaborate extension, and Evaluate assessment all included:

Buy the full 5E Complete Lesson — $13.20

(Station Lab is included)

Frequently asked questions

What does TEKS 5.6B cover?

Texas TEKS 5.6B asks 5th grade students to investigate and compare the properties of mixtures and demonstrate that mixtures can be separated based on the physical properties of their components. Students should be able to recognize a mixture, name the separation technique that matches each component's property (size, magnetism, density, solubility), and explain why one method works for one mixture but not another.

Is this kids' first time meeting mixtures as a science vocabulary word?

For most 5th graders, yes. They have made mixtures their whole lives (cereal and milk, sand at the beach, trail mix) but the word "mixture" as a science category, and the six separation techniques, are new. The Read It! pizza passage anchors the word in something familiar. The Explore It! station puts them into the role of designing a separation procedure. By the end, they have a working vocabulary that sets them up for 5.6C (solutions) and 5.6D (particles of matter).

How long does this Properties of Mixtures activity take?

One to two class periods (45 to 110 minutes total). The Explore It! sand-rocks-water station is the longest piece because designing and testing a separation procedure takes time, so plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. Once your class has the rotation routine down, most groups can finish all 8 stations in one period.

Will the Explore It! station make a huge mess?

Not if you set it up smart. The mixture is water-based, so it's all washable. A cookie sheet or shallow tray under the work area catches drips. One small towel per group handles spills. Total cleanup at the end is about 90 seconds, and the rocks and sand can be reused for the next class if you pour them through a strainer and dry them on paper towels overnight.

Can I use this in a 1:1 digital classroom?

Yes. The full digital version (PowerPoint or Google Slides) works in 1:1 classrooms and Google Classroom. Students drag digital cards at the Organize It! station and type their answers. The Explore It! sand-rocks-water activity is harder to digitize, but a virtual mixture-separation simulation works as a substitute if you don't have physical supplies. The hands-on version is worth doing if at all possible, though, because the design-your-own-procedure aspect is the part students remember.