Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub
Free scope and sequences, TEKS breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, and engagement activities for the 2024 Texas science standards.
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5th Grade TEKS Standards
Click any standard to see what it means, how to teach it, where students get stuck, and aligned resources.
Compare & Contrast Matter
"Compare and contrast matter based on measurable, testable, or observable physical properties, including mass, magnetism, relative density (sinking and floating using water as a reference point), physical state (solid, liquid, gas), volume, solubility in water, and the ability to conduct or insulate thermal energy and electric energy;"
💡 What This Standard Actually Means
"Compare and contrast". Students aren't just naming properties. They're holding up two objects, testing the same property on both, and explaining how the results are alike or different. The standard's "including" list spells out exactly which properties show up on the test: mass, magnetism, relative density (sinking and floating in water), physical state (solid, liquid, gas), volume, solubility in water, and the ability to conduct or insulate thermal energy and electric energy. Each property gets its own quick test, like a balance for mass, a magnet for magnetism, a tub of water for density and solubility, and a circuit or warm spoon for conductivity. Kids should be able to look at any everyday object and predict how it behaves on each one of those tests.
Walk into any 5th-grade classroom and there's matter everywhere. The pencil on the desk, the water in the cup, the air in the room, the magnet on the whiteboard, the metal leg of the chair. Every one of those things has properties you can measure or observe, and those properties are how scientists tell one kind of matter apart from another. The job of this standard is to teach kids that you don't classify matter by guessing. You classify it by testing.
The TEKS list is the recipe. Mass is how much stuff is in an object, measured on a balance. Magnetism is whether a magnet attracts the object. Relative density is whether the object sinks or floats in water. Physical state is whether it's a solid, liquid, or gas at room temperature. Volume is how much space it takes up, measured with a ruler or a graduated cylinder. Solubility in water is whether it dissolves when you stir it in. Conducting or insulating thermal and electric energy is whether heat or electricity moves through it easily.
By the end of the unit, kids should be able to pick up any object, predict how it'll behave on each of those tests, and use the results to compare it to a different object. They should know that two objects can share some properties (both metal, both solid) but be different on others (one floats, one sinks). That's the whole game.
If I were teaching this standard, I'd skip the vocabulary list entirely. Kids can parrot the words back, but the second you drop a paperclip and a plastic spoon on their desks and say "compare them," they freeze. The move I'd lean on is walking them through every property as a station test. Set up a magnet station, a balance station, a sink-or-float station, a circuit station, a warm-water station, and so on. Each kid carries a recording sheet from station to station, testing the same five mystery objects every time. By the end, they have a chart of properties for each object and the comparing happens naturally because the data is already on the page. Don't lecture this one. Let the testing do the teaching.
⚠️ 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.
"All metals are magnetic"
Only certain metals are magnetic. Iron, nickel, and steel will jump to a magnet. Aluminum cans, copper pennies, and gold rings will not. Kids see a shiny metal object and assume the magnet will stick. Set up a station with a soda can, a paperclip, a penny, and a steel washer and let them test it. Watching the magnet ignore the soda can is the moment the misconception dies.
"Heavy things sink and light things float"
It's not about how heavy something is. It's about how heavy it is compared to the same amount of water. A giant cargo ship weighing thousands of tons floats. A tiny steel screw sinks. The ship floats because of its shape and the air inside it. The screw sinks because all of the steel is packed into a small space. That's relative density, and water is the reference point.
"If something dissolves, it disappears"
Dissolving doesn't make matter disappear. The salt or sugar particles spread out evenly through the water until they're too small to see. The matter is still there. Taste the water and the salt is right there. Let the water evaporate and the salt comes back to the bottom of the dish. Solubility just means it broke apart into the water, not that it vanished.
"All metals conduct heat the same way"
Different materials conduct thermal energy at different rates, and even some metals are way better at it than others. Stick a metal spoon, a wooden craft stick, and a plastic spoon in a cup of warm water and feel the tops after a minute. The metal spoon gets warm fast. The wood and plastic stay cool. That's why pots have wooden or plastic handles. Insulators slow heat down. Conductors let it move.
📓 Teaching Resources for 5.6A
These resources are aligned to this standard.
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🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 5.6A
Use these real-world phenomena to anchor your lesson. Show students the phenomenon first, let them wonder, then build toward Compare & Contrast Matter as the explanation.
The Floating Orange
Drop a whole orange into a deep container of water. It bobs along the surface like a buoy. Now peel that same orange and drop it back in. It sinks straight to the bottom. The orange itself didn't get heavier. The peel weighs almost nothing. But the rough, air-pocketed peel changes the orange's relative density, and removing it changes whether the same fruit sinks or floats.
"How can the same orange float one minute and sink the next? What property changed when we took the peel off, and how would you test it on something else?"
The Magnet That Picks Favorites
Lay out a tray of objects: a paperclip, an aluminum soda can, a copper penny, a steel washer, a plastic spoon, a rubber band, and a quarter. Run a strong magnet over the tray slowly. Some things leap up to the magnet. Others don't move at all, even though they look metal. The paperclip and washer come right up. The penny and the soda can sit there ignoring the magnet completely.
"All of these objects look like 'metal stuff,' but the magnet only picked some of them. What does that tell you about how to test a property like magnetism instead of just guessing from how something looks?"
The Spoon Race
Set three spoons standing up in a mug of hot water: a metal spoon, a plastic spoon, and a wooden spoon. Stick a small dab of butter on the very top of each handle. Watch what happens over the next two or three minutes. The butter on the metal spoon slides down first. The plastic one's butter stays put. The wooden one's butter doesn't move at all. Same water, same heat, three very different results.
"Why did one spoon's butter melt before the others? Which materials are conductors and which are insulators of thermal energy, and how could you use that information to choose the safest material for a soup ladle?"
💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 5.6A
Mystery Object Property Stations
Set up seven property stations around the room: mass (balance), magnetism (magnet), relative density (tub of water), physical state (room-temp display of solid/liquid/gas), volume (ruler or graduated cylinder), solubility (cup of water), and conductivity (simple circuit and a cup of warm water). Each group carries five mystery objects through every station, recording the property results in a chart. At the end, they pick two objects and write a "compare and contrast" paragraph using their data.
Property Sorting Card Game
Print 15-20 picture cards of everyday objects (keys, ice cube, balloon, soda can, sponge, granite rock, etc.). Students sort the cards into bins labeled with each property: floats vs. sinks, magnetic vs. not magnetic, conductor vs. insulator, dissolves vs. doesn't dissolve. Same card might land in multiple bins depending on which property is being tested. Great five-minute warm-up the day after the station lab.
Two Objects, One Recording Sheet
Hand each pair of students two objects (like a paperclip and a plastic spoon) and a single page with all seven properties listed down the left side and two columns on the right. They test each property on both objects and check off the result. Then they write three "alike" statements and three "different" statements at the bottom. Quick, focused, and forces them to use all the property words.
Build-a-Boat Density Challenge
Give every group one square of aluminum foil and a pile of pennies. The challenge: shape the foil into a boat that floats and holds the most pennies before it sinks. The same flat foil sinks if it's crumpled into a ball. The boat-shaped foil floats and holds 30+ pennies. Connects relative density to shape and water volume in a way kids never forget.
🎯 What Approaches, Meets, and Masters Thinking Look Like
Here is what student thinking at each level looks like on this one task, so you know what to look for and how to move a student up.
A student has two objects: a steel paperclip and an empty aluminum soda can. Both are shiny metal. The student tests each one with a magnet. The paperclip jumps to the magnet. The soda can does not move at all. Explain what this test shows about how the two metals are alike and how they are different.
- Names magnetism as the property being tested (whether a magnet pulls on the object).
- States the result of each test clearly: the paperclip is attracted, the can is not.
- Compares the two objects, telling at least one way they are alike (both are metal, both are solid, both are shiny).
- Contrasts the two objects, telling that they are different on the magnet test.
- Uses the test result as evidence, not a guess, when describing each metal.
- Avoids the trap of saying every metal is magnetic. Being a metal and being magnetic are two different things.
The paperclip and the can are alike because they are both metal. They are both shiny too. They should both stick to the magnet because all metals are magnetic. So they are basically the same.
The two objects are alike because they are both solid metal and both shiny. But the magnet test shows they are different. The steel paperclip is magnetic because it jumped to the magnet. The aluminum can is not magnetic because it did not move. So they are alike in some ways but different in magnetism.
Both objects are alike because they are solid, shiny metal. But being a metal does not tell you if something is magnetic. You have to test it. The steel paperclip is attracted to the magnet, so it is magnetic. The aluminum can is not attracted, so it is not magnetic. They are the same kind of stuff in some ways but different on this one property.
This is how I know a copper penny would act too. A penny is shiny metal like the can, but if I held a magnet up to it, the penny would not move, just like the aluminum can. The magnet test is the only way to be sure, no matter how metal something looks.
Every 5th-Grade Science TEKS on One Page
The color-coded, front-and-back cheat sheet I wish I'd had — every standard, organized by reporting category. Print it and reference it all year long. This will be your new favorite document!
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