How We Use Materials Worksheet

There are loads and loads of different materials you use each day: your shoes, your pencils and pens, your knife and fork, the carpet you walk on, the window you look out of - loads! The thing is - where do they all come from? What sort of things are they made of?

In this worksheet we will be looking at a whole variety of materials and working out where they come from, what they're made of. Many you will know already but hopefully there'll be a few surprises!

Which of these is made by melting a metal?

soup can

pair of shoes

bar of chocolate

Which of these is made by shaping a lump of clay?

saucepan

knife

plate

Which of these is made by carving a piece of wood?

chair

car

hat

Which of these is made by heating sand to a very high temperature?

volcano

glass

salt

What is paper made from?

straw

stone

wood

What is china made from?

glass

clay

plastic

What is cotton made from?

plant

animal

clay

All those plastics you use come from crude oil.

What is crude oil made from?

petrol

rocks

dead animals and plants

Which one of these things is NOT made from trees?

paper

wood

cardboard

cotton

Which one of these things would NOT be made from metal?

saucepan

shirt

car

clock

Which one of these things CAN be made of plastic?

garden fork

saucepan

sock

radiator

Here is a list of materials:

WOOL

PLASTIC

WOOD

COTTON

SAND

GLASS

CLAY

BONE

PAPER

Match each one with where it comes from: either a NATURAL material or a MAN-MADE material (that has to be manufactured).

Column A	Column B
wool	man-made
plastic	natural
wood	natural
cotton	natural
sand	natural
glass	man-made
clay	natural
bone	natural
paper	man-made

ANSWERS

Question 1

Which of these is made by melting a metal?

CORRECT ANSWER

soup can

EDDIE SAYS

Soup cans are made of steel, so that's the one. Shoes may be made of leather or a variety of materials, but not metal. Metal chocolate? Yuk!!

ANSWERS

Question 2

Which of these is made by shaping a lump of clay?

CORRECT ANSWER

plate

EDDIE SAYS

Saucepans are usually metal and most knives are too, but plates are usually china (which is made from clay).

ANSWERS

Question 3

Which of these is made by carving a piece of wood?

CORRECT ANSWER

chair

EDDIE SAYS

Chairs don't HAVE to be made of wood, but many are. Cars are made of metal and a hat will be some sort of cloth material.

ANSWERS

Question 4

Which of these is made by heating sand to a very high temperature?

CORRECT ANSWER

glass

EDDIE SAYS

Amazingly, glass is made mainly from molten sand! It has to be heated to around 2000C to melt it! Salt is often dug out of the ground and then purified whereas a volcano is not a material as such.

ANSWERS

Question 5

What is paper made from?

CORRECT ANSWER

wood

EDDIE SAYS

Paper is made from wood pulp - that's mashed up trees! It's treated, flattened, dried out and cut to size. That's why it's important to recycle paper - it saves trees!

ANSWERS

Question 6

What is china made from?

CORRECT ANSWER

clay

EDDIE SAYS

China is made from clay which is dug out of the ground. There are several different sorts of clay and some are better for making cups and plates than others.

ANSWERS

Question 7

What is cotton made from?

CORRECT ANSWER

plant

EDDIE SAYS

Cotton is a fibre, used for shirts, trousers and so on, which is made from the cotton plant. It comes from the seed head, which is all white and fluffy.

ANSWERS

Question 8

All those plastics you use come from crude oil.

What is crude oil made from?

CORRECT ANSWER

dead animals and plants

EDDIE SAYS

Amazingly, it's dead animals and plants! Petrol is made from crude oil which is extracted from the rocks deep underground. The tiny plants and animals that have lived in the sea over millions of years died and their bodies contained oils which were squeezed out as the layers of rock built up around them.

ANSWERS

Question 9

Which one of these things is NOT made from trees?

CORRECT ANSWER

cotton

EDDIE SAYS

They are all made from mashed up trees except cotton, which comes from the fluffy seed head of the cotton plant.

ANSWERS

Question 10

Which one of these things would NOT be made from metal?

CORRECT ANSWER

shirt

EDDIE SAYS

Metal shirts? They're going to be heavy, cold and uncomfortable! The others don't HAVE to be all metal, but shirts are never metal (unless you're a medieval warrior!).

ANSWERS

Question 11

Which one of these things CAN be made of plastic?

CORRECT ANSWER

sock

EDDIE SAYS

Yes, socks are often made of man-made fibres which are a plastic material - that's why the fibres melt when they are put in the fire. The others are mostly metal (with some plastic bits sometimes).