What Are Reversible and Irreversible Changes? How Do You Explain It?

Are you teaching your students about reversible and irreversible changes in matter? If it has been a while since you’ve taught this concept, or your students need a quick introduction, here’s a fun little explanation and intro you can share with them.

• Did you know that some changes can be undone while others can’t? Think about melting an ice cube: if it melts, you can freeze the water again to get the ice back. This is called a reversible change. Reversible changes happen when a substance changes but can still be returned to its original form, like water freezing into ice or chocolate melting and hardening again.
• Irreversible changes happen when the material changes so much that it can’t return to what it was before. Think of burning a piece of paper or cooking an egg—you can’t get the paper or egg back to its original state!

Sort It Out! Reversible and Irreversible Changes for Kids

This engaging Science Learning Center from Teach Starter helps students explore reversible and irreversible changes with a hands-on sorting activity. The set includes 24 colourful picture cards, each showing an example of a chemical or physical change in matter—students will decide whether the change can be reversed. Some examples of reversible and irreversible changes are:

• Melting butter
• Freezing water
• Burning paper
• Boiling an egg
• And more!

This printable science game comes with a recording sheet for students to write down their answers and an answer key for self-checking. It’s a perfect tool for introducing the concepts of physical and chemical changes in a fun, hands-on way! 

This printable resource is perfect for small group activities, science centres, or even as an assessment tool to check students’ understanding of reversible and irreversible changes.

Download and Print!

This resource is available as an easy-to-use Google Slides or Printable PDF Resource file. To get your copy, click the dropdown arrow on the download button to select your preferred file format. Make your copy, place the resource in your science centre, and you’re ready to begin!

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher and Teach Starter Collaborator.

Even More Printable Matter Worksheets and Activities 

Before you go, take advantage of a world of printable resources to teach students about the physical properties of matter! Explore these related resources to enhance your teaching toolkit.

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Help your students learn to describe matter using physical properties with an illustrated matter word wall.

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Assess students’ knowledge of basic observable properties of matter with a printable Properties of Matter quiz.