Because we had just visited a flint mine the children wanted one of the squares to show off their piece of flint! Then we began to collect elements to add to the box.
Home School Science
We chose 8 elements that we thought we would be able to collect. We included compounds to make it a little easier on ourselves!
Here are some examples of elements and compounds you should be able to find easily for your collection.
Iron (Fe 26) - (we included steel). Steel wool (you know, for cleaning!), ball bearings, horse shoes, chainnmail (what! you don't have any of this lying around!) cast iron pans, iron filings (from your chemistry set). The blade of a metal pencil sharpener is steel. Food cans (steel)
Copper (Cu 29) - copper piping, modern uk and US pennies are copper coated, electrical wire.
Gold (Au 79) - We bought a couple of tiny gold nuggets from Ebay. We also added a gold ring, and bracelet. Gold Leaf sheets are available in craft shops.
Silver (Ag 47) We used silver plated jewlery, The children also added some silver colored coins! Silver leaf sheets are available in craft shops.
Aluminium (Al 13) - Tin foil is made out of aluminium. The covering on tablet packets, the back of mirrors. tent pegs, knitting needles, crochet hooks, aluminium pans, drinks cans.
Carbon ( C 6) - We added a small piece of coal but you could include pencil lead and diamonds!
Nickel (Ni 28) - Before 2001, Canadian quarters were made out of nickel.
Zinc (Zn 30) - US pennies made after 1982 (and UK ones made after 1992) have a zinc core with copper plating over it. Also used in plasters (band-aid!).
Potassium (K 19) - used in low-salt or no-salt.
Sodium (Na 11) - Salt (sodium chloride)
Chlorine (Cl 17) - If you have a swimming pool you probably have some of this.
Magnesium (Mg 12) - camp fire starters, the body of metal pencil sharpeners, milk of magnesium.
If you have found more creative ways of studying the Periodic Table for Kids- I would love to hear about them!
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