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Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub

Free scope and sequences, TEKS breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, and engagement activities for the 2024 Texas science standards.

Chris Kesler
I'm Chris Kesler, a former award-winning Texas middle school science teacher. This is the site I wish I'd had in the classroom. One hub with TEKS breakdowns, scope and sequences, phenomenon starters, engagement ideas, and resources, all aligned to the standards you actually teach.
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Pick your grade level and go straight to your TEKS standards, aligned resources, and teaching tools.

All standards updated for the 2024 TEKS revision
TEKS Details | Texas Hub Module

4th Grade TEKS Standards

Click any standard to see what it means, how to teach it, where students get stuck, and aligned resources.

Matter & Properties (4.6)
4.6A Classify Matter by Physical Properties 4.6B Mixtures & Solutions 4.6C Conservation of Matter in Mixtures
Force & Motion (4.7)
4.7 Patterns of Forces & Motion
Energy (4.8)
4.8A Energy Transfer in Motion, Waves & Sound 4.8B Conductors & Insulators 4.8C Electrical Energy & Circuits
Earth & Space (4.9)
4.9A Patterns of the Seasons 4.9B Phases of the Moon
Earth's Processes (4.10)
4.10A The Water Cycle & the Sun 4.10B Weathering, Erosion & Deposition 4.10C Weather vs. Climate
Natural Resources (4.11)
4.11A Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources 4.11B Conservation, Disposal & Recycling 4.11C Rocks That Store Earth's Resources
Ecosystems (4.12)
4.12A How Producers Make Food 4.12B Food Webs & Energy Flow 4.12C Fossils & Past Environments
Organisms (4.13)
4.13A Plant Structures & Functions 4.13B Inherited & Acquired Traits
TEKS S.4.6B • Matter & Properties

Mixtures & Solutions

The Standard

"Investigate and compare a variety of mixtures, including solutions that are composed of liquids in liquids and solids in liquids; and"

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

The Key Verb

"Investigate and compare". Fourth graders are mixing things together and looking at the results. The standard zooms in on one specific kind of mixture: solutions. And it spells out the two flavors students need to see: liquids in liquids (like food coloring stirred into water) and solids in liquids (like sugar stirred into water). Comparing means looking at multiple mixtures side by side and noticing what's alike and different. Some mixtures dissolve completely and become solutions. Others stay chunky and you can still see all the parts. The investigating part is hands-on. Pour, stir, watch, record.

Walk into a 4th-grade kitchen lab and you'll see two cups of water, a packet of Kool-Aid powder, and a spoonful of sand. Pour the Kool-Aid into one cup and stir. The powder disappears, the water turns red, and you can't see any chunks anywhere. That's a solution. Pour the sand into the other cup and stir. The water turns cloudy, but as soon as you stop stirring, the sand sinks to the bottom. The two parts separate again. That's still a mixture, but it's not a solution.

4.6B is teaching kids to spot the difference. A mixture is anytime you combine two or more things and they don't change into something brand new. The pieces are still themselves, just hanging out together. A solution is a special kind of mixture where one thing dissolves into another so completely that you can't see the parts anymore. The TEKS lists the two types kids need to investigate: liquids dissolved in liquids (like vinegar in water, food coloring in water) and solids dissolved in liquids (like sugar in tea, salt in water).

By the end of this unit, kids should be able to mix two things together, watch what happens, and answer two questions. Did the parts disappear into each other or stay separate? Was this a solution or just a regular mixture? They should be comparing different mixtures with their own eyes, not just reading definitions off a slide.

💬 From Chris's Classroom

If I were teaching this standard, I'd lean on a "mixture matchup" with five clear cups lined up across the front table. Cup 1 is sugar and water. Cup 2 is sand and water. Cup 3 is food coloring and water. Cup 4 is oil and water. Cup 5 is salt and water. Stir each one up in front of the class, then wait five minutes and look at all five together. Kids can see clearly which mixtures stay mixed (solutions) and which ones separate back out. Once they see it with their eyes, the words "solution" and "mixture" tend to stick the rest of the year. The trick is leaving the cups out long enough for the slow ones to settle. Don't rush past that observation step.

⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students May Have

These are some of the most common misconceptions. Knowing what to look for can help you get ahead of them.

×

"When sugar dissolves in water, the sugar disappears"

✓

The sugar is still there. The pieces just got so small you can't see them anymore. Taste the water and the sweetness is the proof. Let the water sit out for a few days and evaporate, and the sugar comes back as crusty crystals on the bottom of the cup. Dissolving doesn't make matter vanish. It just spreads it out evenly.

×

"All mixtures are solutions"

✓

Every solution is a mixture, but not every mixture is a solution. A bowl of trail mix is a mixture, but the peanuts and raisins are still separate. Sand and water is a mixture, but the sand sits on the bottom. A solution is the special case where the parts dissolve so well you can't see them anymore. Big difference.

×

"If two liquids mix, they always make a solution"

✓

Not always. Pour vegetable oil into water and stir. The oil bubbles back up and floats on top. They don't dissolve into each other. Now pour vinegar into water and stir. They blend completely and you can't see the vinegar anymore. Two liquids only make a solution if one actually dissolves in the other.

×

"Stirring harder always dissolves more"

✓

Stirring helps speed it up, but it has limits. Once water is full of dissolved sugar, no amount of stirring is going to make more sugar dissolve. The undissolved sugar will just sit on the bottom. Heat helps a lot more than extra stirring once you hit that limit.

📓 Teaching Resources for 4.6B

These resources are aligned to this standard.

Complete 5E Lesson
Comparing Mixtures & Solutions Complete Science Lesson
The full unit for 4.6B: differentiated station labs, editable presentations, interactive notebooks (English + Spanish), student-choice projects, and assessments covering mixtures, solutions, and the difference between solids-in-liquids and liquids-in-liquids. Built on the 5E model.
⏱ Best for: Full unit coverage • Multiple class periods
Preview → Buy →
Station Lab
Comparing Mixtures & Solutions Station Lab
9-station hands-on lab where 4th graders investigate and compare a variety of mixtures, including liquid-in-liquid and solid-in-liquid solutions. Input stations (Explore It!, Watch It!, Read It!, Research It!) and output stations (Organize It!, Illustrate It!, Write It!, Assess It!). Print and digital. English and Spanish.
🔬 Best for: Core instruction • 1-2 class periods
Preview → Buy →
Student Choice Projects
Comparing Mixtures & Solutions Student Choice Projects
Choice board with nine project options plus a "design your own" pathway. Students show what they know about mixtures and solutions through writing, building, illustrating, presenting, or digital formats.
🎓 Best for: Project-based assessment • 2-3 class periods
Preview → Buy →

🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 4.6B

Use these real-world phenomena to anchor your lesson. Show students the phenomenon first, let them wonder, then build toward Mixtures & Solutions as the explanation.

🔎
Phenomenon 1

The Disappearing Sugar

Pour clear water into a clear cup. Drop in a sugar cube. The cube sits on the bottom for a minute, then starts shrinking. Stir gently and the cube vanishes. The water still looks completely clear. The kids will swear the sugar is gone. Hand one student a clean spoon and let them taste a drop. The water is sweet. The sugar is right there. They just can't see it anymore.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Where did the sugar go? If you can taste it but you can't see it, is it a mixture or did it actually disappear?"

🔎
Phenomenon 2

Oil and Water Refuse to Cooperate

Half-fill a clear bottle with water. Add a few drops of food coloring so the water is bright red. Pour vegetable oil in until the bottle is almost full. Cap it tight. Shake it up like crazy for ten seconds, then set it on the desk. For the first second it looks blended. Then the oil starts pulling back together and rising to the top. Within a minute, you've got two clear layers again, every time.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Both oil and water are liquids. Why won't they make a solution? What does this tell us about the difference between a regular mixture and a solution?"

🔎
Phenomenon 3

Two Cups, One Surprise

Set up two identical clear cups of water. Add a tablespoon of sugar to cup 1 and a tablespoon of sand to cup 2. Stir both cups for thirty seconds. Set them down. Five minutes later, cup 1 still looks like clear water (the sugar dissolved into a solution). Cup 2 has clear water on top with a pile of sand on the bottom (the sand is still there, separated again).

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Both cups had a solid stirred into water. Why did one make a solution and the other one didn't? How could you tell the difference just by looking?"

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 4.6B

01

Six-Cup Solubility Test

Set out six clear cups of water at every table. Each cup gets a different mix-in: sugar, salt, sand, food coloring, vegetable oil, baking soda. Each kid stirs all six and records two things on a chart: "Did it disappear?" (yes/no) and "Solution or mixture?" The data sheet at the end is a side-by-side comparison of six mixtures, exactly what the standard asks for.

Materials: Six clear cups per table, water, sugar, salt, sand, food coloring, vegetable oil, baking soda, plastic spoons, recording charts
02

Sort the Mixture Cards

Give every table a stack of 12 mixture cards (lemonade, salad, trail mix, salt water, oil and water, Kool-Aid, sand and water, vinegar and water, soup, granola, sweet tea, dirt and water). Two columns on the wall: SOLUTION and MIXTURE-but-not-a-solution. Kids take turns walking up and posting cards under the right header, explaining why. Tricky cases like soup and lemonade lead to the best debates.

Materials: 12 picture cards per group, two header signs, sticky tack
03

Speed-Dissolve Race

Three identical cups, three sugar cubes. Cup 1 is cold water (no stirring). Cup 2 is cold water (with stirring). Cup 3 is warm water (with stirring). Drop one cube in each cup at the same time. Time how long until each cube fully dissolves. Bar graph the results. Connects directly to "investigate" because kids are running a controlled comparison and recording data.

Materials: 3 clear cups per group, 3 sugar cubes, cold water, warm water, plastic spoon, stopwatch, graph paper
04

Make a Color Solution

Give every kid a clear cup, a small bottle of water, and a single drop of red food coloring. They watch the drop swirl down through the water without stirring, like a tiny tornado. Then they stir gently and watch the color spread evenly until the whole cup is light pink. Then everyone draws what they saw at three stages (drop, swirling, full solution) and labels each one.

Materials: Clear plastic cups, water, red food coloring, plastic spoons, drawing paper
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Practical, week-by-week scope and sequences for grades 4-8. These tell you what to teach and when to teach it. Updated for the 2024 TEKS.

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