A Volcano Shows All Three States of Matter

A Volcano Shows All Three States of Matter (Science in the News)

A volcano is one of the few places on Earth where you can see solid, liquid, AND gas at the same time - solid rock and ash, glowing liquid lava, and volcanic gases like water vapor. This one-page activity uses that dramatic, current phenomenon (dozens of volcanoes were erupting worldwide in 2026) to teach the three states and the role of heat: when rock gets hot enough, its particles gain energy and it melts from a solid into a liquid.

What's Included

• 1 student page: a short news story plus four cards (What's the Story? multiple choice, a fill-in reasoning chain with word bank, Cause & Effect matching, and a Why Does It Matter? sentence starter)
• 1 teacher key page with every answer, a sample response, the standards box, a clickable link to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, and a science-connection summary
• Letter-size PDF, no prep

How It Helps You Teach

• Anchors TEKS 6.6A in a real, current event students find exciting
• Shows all three states in one place, plus how adding heat (energy) changes a solid to a liquid - the kinetic-energy connection
• The article link supports media literacy and lets you show students the source

Pair It With

Part of a States of Matter set: Context Clues, Inferences, Science in the News, Solid/Liquid/Gas sort, and a Reading in Science. Check out our library for the rest.

Standards: TEKS 6.6A; NGSS MS-PS1-4; DCI PS1.A (Structure & Properties of Matter). Part of the Daily Science series by Workybooks.