Description
What our Elements: Calcium lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Elements: Calcium is a high-interest reading comprehension lesson plan. As such, students will practice various close reading and comprehension skills. In addition, they will learn about one of the most common elements in the Periodic Table of Elements. This lesson is for students in 5th grade and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Teacher Notes
The paragraph on this page provides a little more information or guidance on what to expect from the lesson. It explains that you can teach this lesson in a whole-class setting or as an independent, small-group activity. You can use the blank lines to record any thoughts or ideas you have as you prepare.
ELEMENTS: CALCIUM LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Discovery and Practical Applications
The Elements: Calcium lesson plan contains two content pages. English chemist Sir Humphry Davy first discovered calcium in 1808. He had been working with a compound called lime (calcium oxide) and used a process called electrolysis to separate the calcium from the oxygen. This process involves passing electricity through a chemical compound to break it apart. The name calcium comes from the Latin word calx, which means lime. Before its discovery as a pure element, people had used calcium-containing materials, such as limestone and plaster, for thousands of years in construction and art. In its pure form, calcium is a soft, silvery metal, but it reacts so quickly with air and water that it very rarely exists by itself in nature.
Calcium is used in many important ways in everyday life. One of the most well-known uses is in cement and concrete, which people use to build roads, bridges, and buildings. Artists and doctors also use calcium compounds in the form of chalk and plaster. In addition, this special element is a key ingredient in making glass and even some types of batteries. And scientists use the metal form of calcium in laboratories to create special chemical reactions.
Calcium Facts and Why the Element Matters
Calcium is the fifth-most abundant element in Earth’s crust and is found in rocks, soil, and water. Many living organisms, including humans, depend on calcium for survival. It is an important part of bones, teeth, and shells. Even in space, astronauts need to take calcium supplements because weightlessness makes their bones weaker. Coral reefs, which provide habitats for ocean life, are made of calcium carbonate. In technology, calcium compounds help remove impurities from metals, make fertilizers for farming, and create medicines that help with heartburn and bone health.
While most people know calcium helps build strong bones, they might not realize that it also helps muscles to move and nerves to send signals. Without calcium, the heart would not beat properly. Interestingly, milk is not the only good source of calcium. Other foods beside dairy products, like leafy greens and fish, are rich in calcium. Seeds, nuts, and even some beans contain calcium, too. Scientists have also found calcium in space, including in stars and meteorites. Did you know that calcium also helps create fireworks? Calcium salts produce bright orange and red colors in fireworks displays.
Calcium is an incredible element that is all around us. It strengthens our bodies, builds our world, and even lights up the night sky. Whether it’s in your milk, a seashell, or a towering skyscraper, this element is an essential part of life on Earth. The next time you see a piece of chalk or a concrete sidewalk, you’ll know that calcium is behind it all!
ELEMENTS: CALCIUM LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Elements: Calcium lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a review worksheet. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the material they learned throughout the lesson. You can refer to the classroom procedure guidelines to know when to hand out each worksheet.
CALCIUM TEST ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity, students will conduct several tests on different types of calcium products. They will write their answers on the lines provided.
REVIEW WORKSHEET
The review worksheet lists five questions based on the lesson content. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them for the answers. In addition, each question provides which reading tool the question corresponds to, such as text feature, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Worksheet Answer Keys
At the end of the lesson plan document is an answer key for the practice worksheet. The correct answers are all in red to make it easier for you to compare them with students’ responses. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
