Dissolving in Water

NCERT anchor: NCERT Looking Around Class 1 — Theme: Water (simple mixing and dissolving observations)

• Stirring sugar or salt into water makes it seem to disappear — it has dissolved.
• The water tastes sweet or salty even though we cannot see the sugar or salt.
• Sand stirred into water does not dissolve — it sinks and stays visible.

1. What is dissolving

Level 1 (Verbal): Sugar mixed in water spreads into tiny bits we cannot see, but it is still there.

Visual: A spoon of sugar stirred into a glass of water, then the glass looks clear.

2. Stirring helps

Verbal: Stirring makes sugar or salt dissolve faster.

3. Not everything dissolves

Verbal: Sand stirred into water sinks and stays visible — it does not dissolve.

Stirring a spoon of sugar into a glass of water

Step 1 — Fill a glass with water.
Step 2 — Add one spoon of sugar.
Step 3 — Stir well and watch the sugar disappear from sight.
Step 4 — Taste a tiny sip: the water tastes sweet.
Answer: the sugar dissolved in the water.

• What happens when sugar is stirred into water?
• Does sand dissolve in water?
• What does salt water taste like?
• Stretch: How can you tell sugar water apart from sand water just by looking?

Revision tip: Stir a spoon of sugar into water at home and watch it disappear.

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Dissolving in Water.