Year 3 Science – Term 2 (WA Curriculum): States of Matter and Heat

What this unit covers

In Term 2, Year 3 Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “States of Matter and Heat”.

Students explore the observable properties of solids and liquids and investigate how adding or removing heat causes changes of state.

Lesson sequence (8 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Investigating the Properties of Solids Around Us
2. Exploring How Liquids Behave and Move
3. Comparing Solids and Liquids - What Makes Them Different?
4. Melting Ice - How Heat Changes Solids to Liquids
5. Making Ice Cubes - How Removing Heat Freezes Liquids
6. Observing Chocolate Melt and Solidify
7. Investigating Water's Three States with Heat
8. Predicting and Testing Changes of State

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 2

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 2 runs from Monday 20 April to Friday 3 July — 11 weeks for WA public schools. With 8 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.