My chemistry students are currently working with basic definitions that form the crucial foundation of the subject. One of these words that must be defined is matter. Before giving students a specific definition, I decided to let them play with the concept themselves through a matter vs not matter card sort.
To make my card sort, I used a bank of words from the margins of the teacher’s edition of Holt’s Chemistry.
There weren’t quite enough words to fit my template, so I had my husband suggest a couple more.
Here’s what I came up with:
And, here are some action shots from when I used the matter vs not matter card sort with my chemistry class:
Free Download of Matter vs Not Matter Card Sort Activity
Matter Not Matter Card Sort (PDF) (1309 downloads )
Matter or Not Matter Card Sort (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (995 downloads )
More Activities for Teaching Matter and Change
- Physical vs Chemical Changes Story
- Extensive vs Intensive Properties Color Coding Activity
- Homogeneous vs Heterogeneous Color Coding Activity
- Physical Changes vs Chemical Changes Venn Diagram
- Film Canister Density Challenge
- Substances vs Mixtures Sorting Activity
- States of Matter Foldable
- Matter vs Not Matter Card Sort Activity