It's ELEMENTary My Dear 5th Graders

OK...today I am going to post twice.  I know, I know...breaking blog law, but it must be done.  Both posts will go together, so I hope that I can be forgiven ;)

Today, my amazing teammate Kristi came to show me this book that she had made about the various elements that our 5th graders are going to need to know.  I LOVED it!!  In this post, I will share with you what we did in the actual book.  The next post will have directions for how to make the book itself.

When I went to college, I started out as a biology major, though you would never know it by my lack of knowledge in this subject of science.  5th grade science is killing me!   We are currently in the midst of our chemistry unit, more specifically chemical reactions and equations.  Yeah....NOT easy.  So in order to make it a bit easier, Kristi suggested we make this with the students.  After a bit of discussion and tweeking to get the book exactly standards based, we ended up with this.....

Cute, eh?  When you open it up, there are two sides.  On the left side, the students wrote "Element or Compound Symbol".  On the right side, the wrote, "Common Name, picture, uses/facts, and state at room temperature.

When you open it up, it then becomes a "foldable" type book.  Under the left side are all the common elements and compounds they are required to know according to our state standard.  (H2O, NaCl, O, N, CO2, He, C6H12O6)  On the right side, they listed what that compound is more commonly known as, some facts from their science book, a picture of some common uses, and if it is a liquid, solid, or gas at room temperature (again, all the stuff our state says is important)

And there you have it.  A cute little reference for the students to study the common compounds and elements!  My kids really enjoyed making these books today (and yes, they did the entire thing...no assembly by me required!)  Thank you Kristi for this amazing idea!!