Description
What our Elements: Carbon lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Elements: Carbon 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: CARBON LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Discovery and Practical Applications
The Elements: Carbon lesson plan contains two content pages. Carbon is one of the oldest elements known to people. Antoine Lavoisier is credited with formally naming and recognizing it as an element in 1789. However, it wasn’t technically discovered by anyone because humans have used it for thousands of years! Early people used charcoal (a form of carbon) to make fires and draw on cave walls. The word carbon comes from the Latin word carbo, which means coal. Even though it’s been used for so long, scientists only began to study it closely in the 1700s. They discovered that carbon is special because it can form many different things.
Did you know pencil “lead” isn’t made of lead? It is actually made from a soft form of carbon called graphite. Carbon is also in charcoal, which we use to grill food. Another form of this element, called diamond, is the hardest natural material on Earth. It’s used in jewelry and even in tools to cut through metal or dense substances like concrete and brick! Engineers also use carbon fiber, a strong and light material, to build bikes, cars, and airplanes.
Carbon Facts and Why the Element Matters
Carbon is found all around us—in the air, the ground, and even our bodies. The air we exhale contains carbon dioxide, which plants use to make food. Plants and animals are made of carbon, too. Fuels that provide energy—such as oil, gas, and coal—are made from ancient plants and animals. These plants and animals from millions of years ago have turned into carbon-rich materials.
Carbon can take many forms. Besides diamond and graphite, scientists discovered a form of carbon called fullerenes. Fullerenes are really cool because they are shaped like tiny soccer balls! These were found in space and are being studied for use in medicine and electronics. Another fun fact: Even though diamonds and charcoal are made of carbon, the tiny building blocks (atoms) are arranged differently. Think of how the same LEGO® pieces can make a castle or a boat! It’s how the atoms are arranged that makes all the difference!
Now you see that carbon is super crucial for life. Every living thing, including you, your pets, and your plants, is made of carbon! Without it, there would be no life on Earth. It helps build muscles, bones, and even DNA, the code inside your cells. Carbon is the star of the carbon cycle, which helps keep our planet balanced. So, whether it’s sparkling in a ring or assisting a tree in growing, carbon is quite amazing!
ELEMENTS: CARBON LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Elements: Carbon 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.
HIDDEN MESSAGES ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity, students will have a fun time experimenting with lemon juice to create hidden messages.
REVIEW WORKSHEET
The review worksheet lists 5 questions based on the content. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them often 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.
