Mixing and Sorting Solids

NCERT anchor: NCERT Looking Around Class 1 — Theme: Materials (simple mixing and separating observations)

• We can mix two kinds of solids, like rice and rajma (kidney beans), or red and blue beads.
• Unlike dissolving, these solids do not disappear — we can still see and pick them apart.
• Sorting a mixture back into groups is called separating.

1. Mixing solids

Verbal: Mix a handful of rice with rajma in a bowl — each grain stays itself.

Visual: A bowl with rice and rajma mixed together.

2. Nothing new is made

Verbal: Mixing rice and beans does not make a new food — it is just a mixture.

3. Separating

Verbal: Picking the mixture apart by hand into a rice pile and a bean pile is called separating.

Mixing rice and rajma, then sorting them back

Step 1 — Put a handful of rice and a handful of rajma in a plate.
Step 2 — Mix them together with your hand.
Step 3 — Pick out the rajma one by one into a separate bowl.
Step 4 — What is left in the plate is only rice.
Answer: the mixture was separated back into rice and rajma.

• What happens to rice when it is mixed with rajma?
• What do we call picking a mixture back into groups?
• Can beads of different colours be sorted after mixing?
• Stretch: How is mixing rice and beans different from dissolving sugar in water?

Revision tip: Mix and then sort a small bowl of rice and rajma at home.

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Mixing and Sorting Solids.