This book gives elementary and middle school teachers a set of physical science activities to help teach major concepts in the study of matter. The activities were developed to lend themselves to a guided inquiry approach for use with grades 3-8. To be effective over such a wide grade range, activities are designed to cover basic concepts but have the flexibility to be modified by teachers through various questioning strategies, the degree of guidance given students, and the vocabulary used. Concepts included in the topic of matter were chosen based on the National Science Education Content Standards for Physical Science and Science as Inquiry, and also on the results of teacher surveys asking for the content most often studied on matter which includes scientific questions and their investigation, physical properties, physical change, chemical change, states of matter, density, and mixtures and solutions. The activities in this book include many suggestions for questioning strategies before, during, and after the activities. (KHR)