This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 6th grade Science content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 6th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

With this resource, students will use a knowledge check table to analyze their background knowledge about atoms.

This app for iPad devices is a fully interactive atomistic simulation that shows the motions of atoms as they attract, repel, and collide with one another. With the tap or swipe of a finger, students can add, delete, or highlight molecules, as well as increase/decrease temperature, pressure, or volume and explore the states of matter. An associated simulation, Salts, allows students to manipulate atoms and ions to join to form crystals.

Students define a molecule and list the basic components and structure of the atom. They will also understand how engineers use their knowledge of atomic structure to design new technologies.

In this lesson, students identify atoms as the smallest building block of matter and explain that atoms, in different combinations, form different materials. Students will also differentiate between photosynthesis and respiration.

Just how small are atoms? And what's inside them? The answers turn out to be astounding, even for those who think they know. This fast-paced animation uses spectacular metaphors (imagine a blueberry the size of a football stadium!) to give a visceral sense of the building blocks that make our world.

In this activity, students increase their familiarity with the Periodic Table and the names and symbols of common elements.

This resource breaks down the concept of matter and provide interative questions to test students knowledge.

With this resource, students will learn about the true size and structure of an atom. In groups of six, students will be assigned the role of either a proton, neuron or electron and demonstrate the position of these atomic particles in a helium atom.

Through this lesson, students will be able to identify and describe what matter is and how it can be classified. They will also investigate different types of matter and their unique physical properties, specifically density.

This video describes and demonstrates the different structures, states, and properties of matter, including demonstrations conducting in space.

Students will describe their observations of water on the molecular level using the idea that water is composed of tiny molecules that are attached to one another. Students will investigate a drop of water hanging from a dropper and drops of water beading up on wax paper.

This animation explains that molecules are always in motion and that the attractions they have for each other keep them close together.

This video is demonstrates water molecules and how they stick together by popping a water balloon and viewing the video in slow motion.

This is a drawing where the circles represent water molecules. This drawing shows that the water molecules are near each other because of their attraction. The motion lines near some of the circles show that the circles are in motion.

Students will view a demonstration with a metal ball and ring showing that heat causes atoms to spread apart and cooling causes them to come closer together. Animations showing particles of solids and liquids are also provided.

Students will explore the concepts related to phases of materials. Students will learn the basic concepts about solids, liquids, and gases, and how they may be explained by an atomic model. Note: This resource was created for use in a professional development workshop for teachers, but can easily be adapted and is appropriate for classroom use with students.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade Science.