This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 2nd Grade Science content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 2nd Grade Science Matter- Properties & Change unit. 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.

This unit was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 2nd Grade Science for Matter-Properties & Change.

In this lesson, students read and answer questions about a short story called "The Case of the Disappearing Water," in which characters investigate a possible crime scene and use observations about water evaporation to deduce how many days the "victim" might have been missing.

In this water cycle activity, students investigate the evaporation process by participating in an outdoor evaporation experiment held on the school grounds. Students will determine where evaporation takes place the fastest and how nature and humans can affect the process. Observations will be done and data is recorded in each student's science notebook so that the process can be discussed and analyzed.

Students will work in groups to build simple solar stills filled with salt water and observe what happens when the stills are placed in the sun. The students then taste the water they have collected and discuss what has happened in their stills.

Through this lesson, students will understand the relationship among the Sun, heat energy, evaporation, and condensation.

Students will observe water changing from a liquid to a gas using evaporation with water left in cups over time. Students record their data in their Water Journals. This task includes "teacher talk" suggestions, probing questions, learning styles connections using water song, and formative assessment suggestions.

In this lesson, students will observe, measure, and describe water as it changes state. Students will investigate evaporation rates by measuring the water levels in open and closed containers over time.

In this activity, students learn about the evaporation stage of the water cycle by conducting an experiment to observe what happens when water is left in an open jar and a closed jar overnight.

In this lesson, students will observe water in different forms as the teacher performs demonstrations of melting, evaporation, and boiling. Students will record their observations in their science journals.

Students explore what happens to water when it evaporates. They will use both open and closed systems to investigate this question, and make observations about the water cycle as evaporation and condensation occur and re-occur in the closed system.