I have to admit, while I find chemistry experiments loads of fun, I get lost in the details when it comes to studying things like the Periodic Table. We touched on this subject a bit last week in reading about atoms. Haley got a bit glassy eyed while I was reading, although the boys seemed to understand. Maybe its that whole math thing again. They just seem to "get" math while Haley and I have to actually work at it. Regardless, in my quest to make the elements fun and more approachable, I found this fun song from They Might Be Giants.
I also printed out black and white copies of the Period Table for them to color and have some fun with. I also found a neat website that allows the kids to see the entire table, and by clicking on any of the individual elements they can find out more about it. It gives a picture and description of each one. This really helped in my opinion. All those numbers and symbols is just WAY too confusing in my opinion! Overall, I think that's enough for right now. I mean seriously, I managed to graduate from highschool and I don't think I even knew that much. Regardless, if you happen to be studying chemistry this year as we are, you might want to give some of these ideas a try!
Monday, September 17, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Protons, Neutrons, Electrons and more...Fun with Atoms!
This year we're once again doing our Classically Catholic Memory program. Last year it was all about earth science and astronomy. This year we get to delve into the exciting study of chemistry and physics. We've done some chemistry in the past using Real Science 4 Kids, and really enjoyed it. We'll be using some of those studies again this year, and adding in lots more.
Week 1 of our memory work focuses on atoms. We spent the first two days reading about atoms in our Real Science 4 Kids, Pre-Level 1, and Level 1 books, Fizz, Bubble & Flash chemistry book, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science book. On Wednesday and Thursday I decided to do something more interesting and fun. So, after scouring the internet for resources, here are a few of the fun ones we did. First and foremost, Bill Nye The Science Guy has a segment on atoms!
Next, we made models of atoms using Play-doh. Adam chose to make a carbon atom. I was seriously amazed at how much he retained from the books we read. He used the Periodic Table of Elements to determine that his atom needed to have 6 protons, which he made out of purple Play-doh. Then, since all elements must have the same number of electrons as protons, he made 6 small balls of light brown Play-doh to zoom around the nucleus of his atom. He then determined that carbon has an atomic weight of 12.011, which allowed him to figure out that he needed 6 neutrons as well. He used mint green Play-doh for this. By the way, he remembered (all by himself), that you take the atomic weight of the element you wanted to make, and subtract the number of protons it has,and you'll know how many neutrons it has. Pretty cool, huh? Why is it that he gets this so easily while Haley and I had to re-read everything multiple times to make sense of it? So not fair!
Lastly, I found a cute little song that is sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme song. I'm dating myself here... My kids had no idea who the Addam's were, so that led to another search to give them little background info. It really helps if you listen to the original theme song first to get an idea of how to sing this.
Now that you know the tune, plug in these lyrics and have some fun! Hope your week was as fun as ours!
Week 1 of our memory work focuses on atoms. We spent the first two days reading about atoms in our Real Science 4 Kids, Pre-Level 1, and Level 1 books, Fizz, Bubble & Flash chemistry book, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science book. On Wednesday and Thursday I decided to do something more interesting and fun. So, after scouring the internet for resources, here are a few of the fun ones we did. First and foremost, Bill Nye The Science Guy has a segment on atoms!
Next, we made models of atoms using Play-doh. Adam chose to make a carbon atom. I was seriously amazed at how much he retained from the books we read. He used the Periodic Table of Elements to determine that his atom needed to have 6 protons, which he made out of purple Play-doh. Then, since all elements must have the same number of electrons as protons, he made 6 small balls of light brown Play-doh to zoom around the nucleus of his atom. He then determined that carbon has an atomic weight of 12.011, which allowed him to figure out that he needed 6 neutrons as well. He used mint green Play-doh for this. By the way, he remembered (all by himself), that you take the atomic weight of the element you wanted to make, and subtract the number of protons it has,and you'll know how many neutrons it has. Pretty cool, huh? Why is it that he gets this so easily while Haley and I had to re-read everything multiple times to make sense of it? So not fair!
Now that you know the tune, plug in these lyrics and have some fun! Hope your week was as fun as ours!
They're tiny and they're teeny
Much smaller than a beany,
They never can be seeny,
The Atoms Family.
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
Together they make gases,
And liquids like molasses,
And all the solid masses,
The Atoms Family
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
Neutrons can be found,
Where protons hang around;
Electrons they surround
The Atoms Family
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
Much smaller than a beany,
They never can be seeny,
The Atoms Family.
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
Together they make gases,
And liquids like molasses,
And all the solid masses,
The Atoms Family
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
Neutrons can be found,
Where protons hang around;
Electrons they surround
The Atoms Family
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
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