Subject: Chemistry & The Periodic Table

I found the neatest little book to go along with our Chemistry For The Grammar Stage study this year!

The Periodic Table: Elements With Style!  by Adrian Dingle & Simon Basher is an adorable little book that covers the elements, but with a cute twist.  Each element is given a "personality", and the character helps represent some property of the element.  There is also a full page of basic information about that element.  Written in first person, ("I am the most important metal ever known to humankind.") it brings each element character to life.

Reese is a visual learner, and I think seeing each element drawn as a person/monster/cartoon-whatever will help him remember what is important about each one.

There is a tear-out chart like the one above at the back of the book.  My plan is to read about each element as we study them & incorporate the picture into our Science Notebook Pages with our narrations & summaries.

I just love when someone comes up with a cute twist on an age-old subject!  I also see that there are a number of other books in the series that coordinate with other science topics.  Love it!!

Subjects: Science

I'm excited to start our science curriculum this year!  I've chosen Elemental Science: Chemistry for the Grammar Stage.   This Classical Science curriculum is written by Paige Hudson & I just love what I've seen so far!  They also offer Biology, Physics, Earth Science & Astronomy for the Grammar, Logic, & Rhetoric stages (this stage appears to still be in the works).  I am hoping this series works well for us, because I like the idea of sticking with one curriculum model all the way through!

Elemental Science comes with two books: a Student Workbook & a Teacher's Guide.  The workbook has pages for two Scientist biography studies, vocabulary pages with picture & narration spaces, summary pages with picture & narration spaces, experiment pages with picture, narration, & summary spaces, & a whole section of awesome pictures that go along with the definition & summary pages (so your child doesn't have to draw everything!).  Everything is very simple & not cluttered in its design.  My plan is to remove the pages as we use them & put them into a 1" 3-ring binder.

The second book, the Teacher's Guide, lays out 36 weeks' worth of lesson plans.  You can either choose a 5 day week or a 2 day week.  There's a handy weekly supply list at the front of the book, & I would suggest gathering all your supplies at one time into a box, so you have it all ready.  Who wants to search for iodine, steel wool, baby powder, or alligator clips the night before?  Almost all the items are basic "stuff" you have around the house, with the exception of a small handful things (6 volt lantern battery, film camera, Borax, etc).  There is no pre-assembled supply kit, which I have always purchased with our other curriculum guides, so I want to be sure I have everything in one place ahead of time!  I know myself...if I don't have it when I need it, I'll skip the experiment & will likely not get back to it!

In addition to the Student Workbook & the Teacher Guide, you will need to purchase a few books to work from.  Fizz, Bubble, Flash: Element Explorations & Atom Adventures and Adventures with Atoms and Molecules: Book 1  are used for experiments.  Usborne's Internet-linked Science Encyclopedia is used as a reference tool, & offers fantastic links to Usborne's website that coordinate with each topic.

The two books used for the scientist study are Marie Curie's Search for Radium and Pasteur's Fight Against Microbes, both by Beverly Birch.  Many libraries carry these, so check yours before buying if you want to save some money!  Of course, you could substitute with any appropriate level book about these two scientists.   We already own the Pasteur book, but will substitute something else for the Curie book because our library doesn't have it.

I would have thought Chemistry was too complex a subject for 3rd grade, but given this curriculum, it's easy & fun to learn about what makes up our everyday world!