This cheat sheet helps Grade 2 students learn important science words with clear meanings and simple examples. It is made for quick review, classroom use, homework help, and printable study. Students need these words so they can read science lessons, talk about observations, and explain what they learn.
The visual style should make each word easy to find and remember.
Key Facts
- Matter is anything that takes up space, such as air, water, rocks, plants, and people.
- A solid keeps its own shape, a liquid takes the shape of its container, and a gas spreads out to fill space.
- A plant needs sunlight, water, air, and space to grow.
- An animal needs food, water, air, shelter, and space to survive.
- A habitat is the natural place where a plant or animal lives and gets what it needs.
- Weather describes the air outside, including temperature, wind, clouds, rain, snow, and sunshine.
- Earth materials include rocks, soil, sand, water, and air.
- A scientist observes, asks questions, makes predictions, tests ideas, and records what happens.
Vocabulary
- Observe
- To observe means to use your senses to notice details about something.
- Matter
- Matter is anything that takes up space and can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or measured.
- Habitat
- A habitat is the place where a living thing lives and finds food, water, and shelter.
- Weather
- Weather is what the air outside is like at a certain time and place.
- Life Cycle
- A life cycle is the set of changes a living thing goes through as it grows.
- Compare
- To compare means to tell how two or more things are alike and different.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Calling only hard things matter is wrong because liquids and gases are also matter and take up space.
- Mixing up weather and season is wrong because weather can change each day, while a season lasts for months.
- Saying all animals live in the same habitat is wrong because animals need different homes that match their needs.
- Forgetting that plants are living things is wrong because plants grow, need water and air, and can make new plants.
- Using a guess as an observation is wrong because an observation is something noticed with the senses, while a guess is what you think might be true.
Practice Questions
- 1 Circle the things that are matter: rock, sunlight, water, air, sound.
- 2 A thermometer shows 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the sky is cloudy, and the wind is blowing. Name three weather words that describe the day.
- 3 A plant has 6 leaves. One week later it has 9 leaves. How many new leaves grew?
- 4 Why would a fish not be able to live well in a dry desert habitat?