Teaching Chemistry with Toys: Activities for Grades K-9 [Paperback]

Jerry Sarquis (Author), Micky Sarquis (Author), John Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995

This original Toys chemistry book provides exciting projects that use ordinary toys and play materials to demonstrate principles of chemistry. These activities capitalize on children's natural curiosity about the world around them to teach physical science. Students will get excited about the many fun ways to explore chemistry with over 30 hands-on activities, while teachers will enjoy the time savings and peace of mind that come from using materials that have been developed and tested by classroom teachers from across the country. Appropriate for grades K -- 9.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Terrific Science Press (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070647224
• ISBN-13: 978-0070647220
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Chemistry

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Pay Attention to What Grades This Book Is For!, August 8, 2000

By 

AJD (Chatham, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Teaching Chemistry with Toys: Activities for Grades K-9 (Paperback)

O.K. I'll begin by confessing that I am a middle school teacher who participated in one of the NSF funded summer Institutes for Chemical Education. So, I already had the pleasure of working with and learning from two of the authors, Jerry and Mickey Sarquis. I would not have expected anything less than a 5-star professional resource from them. This book is a gem. It offers 42 activities, evenly distributed among K-3, 4-6, and 7-9. However, those categories meant little to my students or me. We loved them all. Of course, I might have changed an activity title like "Twirly Whirly Milk" to something that was more "8th gradish" and added a question or two to the accompanying handout, but what is important is that my students enjoyed the activities and thought about science as a result of doing them.

The activities all include the following well developed sections: key science topics, key process skills, time required, materials - for getting ready - for introducing the activity - for the procedure - for variations and extensions, safety and disposal, getting ready, introducing the activity, procedure, variations and extensions, explanation, assessment options, cross-curricular integration, and some of the activities also have hand-out masters. (I almost rated the book only 4 stars because I would have liked handouts for each activity, but the assessment sectionss offer the teacher many creative options. So, you'll have to think a little. What else is new?)

(1) Unfixed and Fixed Shapes (2) Crystal Pictures (3) Crayon Prints from a Change of State (4) Smell-Good Diffusion Ornaments (5) Smelly Balloons (6) The Scratch-and-Sniff Challenge (7) Density Batons (8) Clay Boats (9) Are Mittens Warm? (10) Magic Worms (11) Fortune-Telling Fish (12) Paint with Water Books (13) Weather Bunnies (14) Twirly Whirly Milk (15) Temperature Mixing (16) Under Pressure (17) Water Fountain in a Jar (18) The Amazing Balloon Pump (19) Pencil Hydrometers (20) Plastics Do Differ! (21) Shape Shifters (22) Pop the Hood (23) Things that Glow in the Dark (24) A Collection of Surface Tension Activities (25) One-Way Screen (26) Mysterious Sand (27) Sumi Nagashi (28) Chromatography Color Burst (29) Properties of Silly Putty (30) Marshmallow in a Syringe (31) Liquid to Gas in a "Flick" (32) Salt Solutions and Grow Creatures (33) The Liquid Timer Race (34) Density Bottles (35) Frustration Bottles (36) Expanding, Floating Bubbles (37) Hats Off to the Drinking Bird (38) Heat Solution TM (39) Color-Changing Cars (40) Investigating the Effect of Temperature on Lightsticks (41) Experimenting with Light-Sensitive Paper (42) The Diving Whale

4.0 out of 5 stars Seems like a good resource, August 18, 2011

By 

Shirley A Franck (Redkey, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Teaching Chemistry with Toys: Activities for Grades K-9 (Paperback)

The ideas are great, and the organization is pretty consistent. I haven't tried all of them, but I have tried a few. The cost as reasonable for a teaching resource.