Once the students have had a chance to share their
interesting chocolate facts and the teacher has either
completed discussion questions or finish reading The
Chocolate Story to the class, the students should be
ready to transition from the large-group carpet setting
to preassign small cooperative learning groups. The
teacher should share with the children the lesson focus,
which concentrates on observing and understanding
solids, liquids, and gases. After the students have been
seated, the teacher should inform the large group that
they will be making observations and predictions by
participating in a balloon expansion activity while
focusing on understanding the differences between solids, liquids, and gases. Students will be asked to listen
closely to a preselected video (Example: http://www.
youtube.com/watch?vDPjZSMu2SXt4) to learn about
the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma). The
teacher can follow up the video with the following