Properties of Mixtures Lesson Plan (TEKS 5.6B): A Complete 5E Lesson for Mixtures & Separation

Chris Kesler · 10 min read

Dump a small pile of iron filings and sand on a paper plate, stir it with a craft stick, and you've got what looks like one gross gray mixture. To a 5th grader, those two substances just got destroyed and turned into something new. Then hold a magnet wrapped in a sandwich bag just above the pile and watch the iron filings jump up like they were waiting for permission. The sand sits there. Kids gasp every time.

That one demo does more than a week of definitions. After they see it, the question "is the iron still iron?" answers itself. Mixing didn't change either substance. They were both still themselves the whole time. That's the entire idea of TEKS 5.6B, and once kids see it happen, the standard clicks.

If I were teaching this to a room of 5th graders, I'd build the whole lesson around hands-on separations and let the demos do the explaining. That's the design of this 5E lesson for TEKS 5.6B. The verb in the standard is demonstrate and explain, which means kids need to see it happen and then put words on what they saw. They can't memorize their way into this one.

⏱ 10 class periods 📓 5th Grade Physical Science 🧪 TEKS 5.6B 🎯 Differentiated for D + M 💻 Print or Digital

Inside the Properties of Mixtures 5E Lesson

The 5E instructional model walks students through five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. It flips the traditional lecture-first sequence on its head. Students explore a concept hands-on before you ever explain it, which means by the time you do explain it, they have something to hook the vocabulary onto.

I switched to the 5E model years ago and stopped going back. Kids retain more, ask better questions, and stop staring at the teacher waiting to be told the answer. The Properties of Mixtures 5E Lesson is built on this framework from start to finish. Here's how it plays out across the five phases.

🎯 Engage

📷 Engage image — objective slide OR word wall card

Day one is a teacher-led hands-on demo with iron filings and sand. Each student (or small group) gets a small paper plate, a craft stick, a pile of sand, a pinch of iron filings, and a magnet inside a sandwich bag. Following the step-by-step teacher directions, they mix, observe, and then pull the iron back out with the magnet.

By the end of the period, kids have sketched the before-mixed and after-separated pile on their student sheet, drawn in their own hand, and they can explain in their own words why the iron is still iron and the sand is still sand. Nobody has heard a vocabulary lecture yet. That's the point. They're walking into the rest of the unit with a working mental model, not a memorized definition.

What's included in the Engage:

Teacher directions for the iron-filings-and-sand demo
Printable student observation sheet
Answer key for the discussion questions
Four learning objective slides (standard verbatim, "Demonstrate and explain" highlighted, "I CAN...", and "WE WILL...")
An illustrated Mixtures Word Wall in English and Spanish covering the full unit vocabulary

🔬 Explore

📷 Explore image 1 — wide shot of Station Lab in action

The Properties of Mixtures Station Lab is the heart of the Explore phase. Students rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) over one class period. The Station Lab is split into four input stations (where kids take in new information) and four output stations (where they show what they learned).

The four input stations:

🎬 Watch It! — Students watch a short video on mixtures and separation methods and answer guided questions.
📖 Read It! — A one-page reading passage at two differentiated levels, with a Spanish version included.
🔬 Explore It! — The hands-on separation activity where students physically separate small mixtures (sand and water, iron and sand, gravel and rice) using filters, magnets, and sifters.
💻 Research It! — Reference cards covering the six separation methods (sorting, sifting, filtration, magnetic attraction, floatation, evaporation) with real-world examples.

The four output stations:

📋 Organize It! — A 12-card sort where students match mixtures to the right separation method.
🎨 Illustrate It! — Students draw a graphic organizer of the six separation methods with a picture and example for each.
✍️ Write It! — Three open-ended questions in complete sentences (this is where you see who really gets it).
📝 Assess It! — A short formative check with multiple choice and a fill-in-the-blank vocabulary paragraph.

📷 Explore image 2 — close-up of featured station (Explore It! or Organize It!)

Print and digital versions are both included. If you want the full breakdown of what happens at every single station, what students produce, and how to set it up, that's in our dedicated Station Lab post.

→ Read the full Properties of Mixtures Station Lab walkthrough 8 stations, materials list, teacher tips

The Station Lab is included in the full 5E lesson. You don't need to buy it separately if you're getting the whole unit.

📚 Explain

📷 Explain image 1 — Presentation slide screenshot

Here's the real payoff of doing the Engage and Explore before the Explain: by the time kids hit this phase, they've already mixed and separated substances with their own hands. They have a working understanding before anyone starts naming things. The discussions get deeper, the questions get sharper, and you spend less time defining and more time pushing their thinking.

The Properties of Mixtures Presentation walks 5th graders through the full scope of TEKS 5.6B, one idea at a time, with examples on nearly every slide. The deck opens with a definition of a mixture (a combination of two or more substances where each substance keeps its own properties), runs through familiar examples (fruit salad, chicken noodle soup, sand and water, iron filings and sand), and then builds out the central idea: when substances are combined into a mixture, no chemical change happens and no new substance is formed.

📷 Explain image (middle) — Presentation slide screenshot (classification hierarchy, Essential Question, or category comparison)

Students learn that the physical properties of each substance in a mixture stay the same. Carrots in a salad are still orange and crunchy. Tomatoes are still red and juicy. The deck includes a built-in drag-and-drop where students sort the properties of sand and iron before and after mixing, dropping every property into the "Unchanged Properties" box because the mixing didn't actually change any of them.

The second half of the unit covers the six methods used to separate mixtures based on physical properties. Sorting by color, texture, or size with hands or tweezers. Sifting with a strainer or sieve to separate solids by size. Filtration with a coffee filter to separate solids from liquids (sand and water). Magnetic attraction to pull magnetic substances out of nonmagnetic ones (iron filings and sand). Floatation based on relative density (oil and water). Evaporation with a heat source to leave a solid behind when the liquid evaporates (salt water leaving salt). Every method ties back to a physical property the substance still had, which is why the separation is even possible.

📷 Explain image 2 — Presentation slide screenshot

For every separation method, students see a definition, a step-by-step how it works, and a real example. That repetition (same structure, different method) is what bakes the demonstrate and explain verb of TEKS 5.6B into long-term memory.

What makes the Properties of Mixtures Presentation different from a typical chemistry slideshow is that kids are doing something on almost every single slide. It's not a lecture deck. It's a participation deck. "Your answer:" prompts appear on most slides, Brain Breaks reset attention every few slides, Quick Action INB tasks (sorting pencil-box contents by properties, matching separation methods to mixtures) show up throughout, and Think About It prompts push deeper into bigger ideas like how Texas aquifers naturally filter groundwater and how scientists clean up oil spills. The deck closes with a Check for Understanding tied back to the Essential Questions: Why do mixtures maintain the physical properties of their substances, and how can a mixture's different ingredients be separated based on physical properties?

The Explain materials in this product include:

An editable 24-slide Presentation at two differentiated levels (Dependent and Modified), works in PowerPoint or Google Slides
A guided fill-in-the-blank student notes handout that mirrors the Presentation, with answer key
A Paper Interactive Notebook (English and Spanish) students cut, fold, and glue into their notebooks
A Digital Interactive Notebook at both levels with answer keys, for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom

The Explain runs across two class periods. The built-in Think About It prompts are where the real discussion happens, so let those breathe.

🛠️ Elaborate

📷 Elaborate image — Student Choice Project board or sample student work

The Elaborate phase is where students stretch what they learned about properties of mixtures and put it into a project of their choosing. In this 5th grade physical science lesson, that's a Student Choice Project board with six different project options plus a "design your own" pathway.

Students might build a working separation system for a custom mixture (think pebbles, iron filings, sand, and salt), or design a children's book that walks a younger student through what a mixture is and how to pull it apart. There are options for kids who love to write, kids who love to draw, kids who love to build, and kids who love to perform. Whatever the project, the point is the same: students apply mixtures and separation to a real-world artifact instead of a worksheet.

Choice is the whole point. By letting students pick how they show their thinking, you get more authentic work for TEKS 5.6B and you actually get to see what they understand about how mixtures keep the properties of their substances.

The rubric (the part teachers actually want)

Every project is graded on a clean 5-category rubric so you can grade a stack of projects quickly without re-reading every criterion. The rubric uses a minus / check / plus shorthand on every row.

Two differentiated versions in one file

The standard version is for students ready for independent application of mixtures and separation. The Reinforcement version is for students who need additional vocabulary or concept support. Three of the six options are swapped for projects with a tighter vocabulary tie-in, and "design your own" is replaced with "collaborate with the teacher" so kids aren't pitching cold.

✅ Evaluate

The Evaluate phase wraps the unit with a formal assessment. It's not all bubble-in. Several questions hand students a described mixture and ask them to pick the best separation method and explain why it works.

The full assessment has 12 questions across five formats:

Multiple choice (4 questions) covering definitions, examples of mixtures, and matching mixtures to separation methods
Hotspot / visual (2 questions) where students circle the right separation method for a given mixture and describe why
Multiselect (2 questions) where students pick all properties that apply to substances in a mixture
Short answer (2 questions) on why substances keep their properties in a mixture and how that makes separation possible
Multipart scenario (2 questions) with a real-world problem (cleaning polluted water, separating a sorted recycling load) where kids identify which methods to use and explain their reasoning

A modified version is included for students who need additional support. Fewer multiple-choice distractors, sentence-starter scaffolds on the short-answer items.

If you've taught all five phases, this assessment shouldn't surprise anyone. It's a chance for kids to show you they get it.

How everything fits together

If you want the whole experience (Engage hook, the Station Lab as the Explore, the Explain day with Presentation and interactive notebook, the Student Choice Elaborate, and the Evaluate assessment all in one download), that's the Properties of Mixtures Complete 5E Science Lesson.

If you only need the one-day hands-on activity, the Station Lab works as a standalone. Most teachers buy the full 5E because the Station Lab works harder when it's bookended by a strong Engage and a follow-up Explain. But both are honest options.

Two options

Properties of Mixtures Complete 5E Lesson cover

Full 5E Lesson — ~10 class periods $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Properties of Mixtures Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab — 1–2 class periods $7.20 Get the Station Lab

What you need to teach Properties of Mixtures (TEKS 5.6B)

Materials beyond what's in the download:

Iron filings and sand for the Engage demo and Station Lab (small amounts go a long way)
Bar magnets in sandwich bags for the magnetic separation (the bag trick keeps the filings off the magnet itself)
Coffee filters, funnels, and cups for the filtration activity
Sieves or strainers for the sifting activity (small kitchen strainers work great)
Vegetable oil and water for the floatation activity
Salt and small dishes for the evaporation demo (let it sit out for a few days)
Pencils, colored pencils or markers, and printed student pages
A device with internet for the Watch It! station and the slide deck

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 5.6B — Demonstrate and explain that some mixtures maintain physical properties of their substances such as iron filings and sand or sand and water; See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 5th grade science

Time: About 10 class periods of 45 minutes each, done with fidelity. The product also ships with a compressed sample unit plan if you need to move faster.

Common misconceptions this lesson clears up

"When you mix two things, they both change into something new"
In a mixture, the substances stay exactly what they were. The iron filings are still iron filings after they're mixed with sand. The sand is still sand. Nothing turned into anything new. That's the whole point of calling it a mixture instead of a chemical reaction. Show this by separating the mixture back out and letting kids hold the original ingredients in their hands again.
"Once it's mixed, you can't get it back apart"
Because each substance still has its own properties, you can usually separate them. Iron filings are magnetic, so a magnet pulls them out of the sand. Sand sinks in water, so a coffee filter or letting the water evaporate brings the sand back. The same property that makes each substance different is the tool you use to undo the mix.
"If a mixture looks like one thing, the substances must have combined into one thing"
Looking like one thing doesn't mean it is one thing. Iron filings and black sand might look like the same gray pile. But run a magnet over it and the iron jumps out and proves it never stopped being iron. The eye can be fooled. The properties tell the truth. Always test before you decide.
"Sand dissolves in water"
Sand does not dissolve in water. Stir it as much as you want and the sand still settles to the bottom as soon as you stop. That's because sand and water is a mixture where the sand keeps its property of sinking and the water keeps being wet. Salt dissolves in water (different standard, 5.6C), but sand stays sand. Watch a glass of sandy water sit on the counter for two minutes and the proof is right there.

What's included in the Properties of Mixtures 5E Lesson download

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

When you buy the Properties of Mixtures Complete 5E Lesson, you get a single download with the whole unit:

✅ Engage materials — teacher directions, student observation sheet, answer key, four learning objective slides, illustrated Mixtures Word Wall (English + Spanish)
✅ The full Station Lab — 8 stations + 1 challenge, print and digital, two reading levels, Spanish Read It!
✅ Explain materials — editable 24-slide Presentation at two differentiated levels (with built-in Brain Breaks, Quick Action INB tasks, and Think About It prompts), guided fill-in-the-blank student notes handout with answer key, Paper Interactive Notebook (English + Spanish), Digital Interactive Notebook at two levels with answer keys
✅ Elaborate (Student Choice Projects) — 6 project options + design-your-own, plus a Reinforcement version with vocabulary-focused alternatives, 5-category rubric included
✅ Summative assessment — full 12-question version and modified version with sentence-starter scaffolds, both with answer keys
✅ Sample unit plan — day-by-day pacing guide

A couple of real-talk tips from running this lesson

1. Pre-bag your magnets before the Engage demo.

Iron filings stick to a bare magnet and become a nightmare to clean off. Slip the magnet into a small zip-top bag first. When you're done, turn the bag inside out and the filings drop neatly into a cup. Lifesaver.

2. Start the evaporation demo on day one.

Set a small dish of salt water near a sunny window on the first day of the unit. By the time you hit the Explain on the separation methods, the water is gone and the salt is sitting there. Show kids the dish and the point makes itself.

3. Save 10 minutes at the end of the Station Lab day for a class debrief.

Ask: "If I gave you a custom mixture of salt, sand, iron filings, and oil all together, what order would you separate them in?" That five-minute conversation is the bridge to the Explain day.

Get the Properties of Mixtures 5E Lesson

Buy the full Properties of Mixtures 5E Lesson — $13.20

Or if you only need the one-day hands-on Station Lab:

Buy the Properties of Mixtures Station Lab — $7.20

(The Station Lab is included in the full 5E Lesson)

Frequently asked questions

Does this cover all of TEKS 5.6B?

Yes. The full standard is addressed across all five phases, with the "demonstrate and explain" verb baked into the Engage demo, the Station Lab, and the Student Choice project.

What do my students need to know before this lesson?

Basic familiarity with physical properties of matter (covered in TEKS 5.6A). If your kids can name a few physical properties and identify magnetic versus nonmagnetic objects, they're ready.

How long does it take to teach?

Done with fidelity, about 10 class periods of 45 minutes each: one day for the iron-and-sand Engage, two days for the Station Lab, two days for the Presentation and Interactive Notebook, three days for the Student Choice Project, and one to two days for review and the assessment.

Do I need special supplies?

Just iron filings, sand, magnets, coffee filters, and a few small strainers. Most teachers can pull these together for under twenty dollars, and they last for years.

Does this work for digital classrooms?

Yes. Every component has a digital version. The Station Lab is fully digital-ready (Google Slides), the Presentation works in Google Slides, and the Student Choice Projects can be submitted as videos, slide decks, or written work.

Is this 5E lesson aligned to NGSS too?

It aligns most directly with 5-PS1-3 and 5-PS1-4 (observing properties before and after mixing, identifying materials based on their properties). Built TEKS-first, but the standards overlap heavily.