Select and use materials to carry out explorations of altering materials to change their appearance, texture, sound, smell, or taste (e.g., sanding, painting, or waxing a piece of wood, mixing two or more paints to obtain a particular shade or colour, popping popcorn, shaping clay, drying meat, tuning an instrument, and cooking food at different temperatures) to change the way they are used.

Assess how altering the smell, taste, appearance, texture, and/or sound of materials may change the way they may be used.

Examine methods (e.g., gluing, stapling, taping, and buttoning) of joining materials of the same and different types.

Use appropriate tools (e.g., glue, scissors, and stapler) correctly and safely for manipulating and observing materials and when constructing useful objects.

Follow a simple procedure to make a useful object from recyclable materials (e.g., picture frame from old puzzles, holiday ornament from juice can lid, and musical instrument from tissue rolls).

Design and construct a useful object that meets a student specified function by selecting, combining, joining, and/or altering materials.

Evaluate, using student-identified criteria, personally-constructed objects with respect to their suitability for a particular function.

Communicate procedures and results of their design and construction process using drawings, demonstrations, and written and oral descriptions.

Describe and demonstrate ways to use materials appropriately and efficiently to the benefit of themselves, others, and the environment (e.g., select the amount and kind of materials that are appropriate to a given task; recognize and demonstrate appropriate reuse of materials in daily activities).