Spectrum Language Arts 2015 Grade 8

These materials cover both writing and grammar, but they are more supplemental in scope.

Every once in a while, you come across a product that you wish you could have had when you were growing up, and those were exactly my feelings when I reviewed Ellen Johnston McHenry's introductory chemistry course. Geared for the upper elementary to junior-high age students, it introduces chemistry gently, comparing the elements, the ingredients of our world to common kitchen ingredients we use everyday to make many very different baked goods. The analogy kicks off the first chapter, where they learn about the more common elements such as carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, analogous to flour, sugar, and salt, which are used in nearly everything we bake. More uncommon elements such as berylium, gallium, and selenium are compared to fruit, spices, and other add-ins that you might only use in special recipes. The periodic table is then introduced, in the more simplified (and less intimidating) format of the "Kitchen Cupboard of the Universe). The basic concepts of chemistry are introduced in each chapter, in a very simple, understandable format, and avoids bogging them down with details that will be covered (much more exhaustively!) in high school or college. The approach appears to work well, with protons, neutrons, electrons, the electron cloud model, orbitals, bonding, spin, and more covered in just the very first few chapters. Fun and interactive activities are featured at the end of each chapter, to review and reinforce what was covered in the chapter, before moving further on. The activities are a good mix of hands-on experiments, and model-making, puzzles, fill-in-the-blanks, and of course short answer to write electron configurations, Lewis diagrams, chemical compounds and more. The hands-on activities have been well-chosen and illustrate well the concepts that have been learned. Constructing balloon electron cloud models and edible chemical compounds, creating carbon dioxide bubbles, and electolysis are several examples. Several songs are included, for those who are more auditorily oriented. Several more involved activities include making periodic-table pillowcases to play a game on, creating your own "collect-'em-all" chemical elements card deck, and performing several short skits on the discovery of several of the more common elements of the periodic table. Students are also challenged by the author to memorize as much of the periodic table as they can, to help make life easier when they revisit the subject (as well as impress their relatives at get-togethers). At only 70 pages of lessons, this is a fairly brief, but effective introduction to chemistry that could be easily worked into the academic year with any style of curriculum being used. Patterns, outlines, activity sheets, experiments, games, skits and more are included in the Teacher's Section in back half of the book activity packet. And, to make things easier on Mom, most of the materials are easily found, either around the home, or at your local Wal-Mart. (No poring over science supply catalogs trying to decide how many moles of a chemical to order!) A CD is included with the book which contains songs and a digital copy of the book.

All in all, this is a very well-done introduction to the basics of chemistry, and whatever your students take with them from this course will be well applied to more advanced chemistry, making their journey into more advanced chemistry all the more manageable. Plus, I think students will definitely be impressed with themselves for being able to complete some college-level chemistry by Chapter 3 of the book! Personally, my first real experience with chemistry was my senior year of high school, followed by the four semesters of chemistry required by my major, and I think both high school chemistry as well as introductory college chemistry would have been much easier to understand had I had some experience with these concepts at an earlier age. - Jess

For the most part the newest edition (2015 copyright) is essentially the same as the older edition (2007 copyright). The tables of content are identical but very occasionally wording on an exercise page has been changed, seemingly to raise the reading level of the material. These hefty worktexts cover mechanics (capitalization, punctuation), usage, and grammar in approximately 50 two-page lessons plus periodic reviews. A Writer's Handbook section with ten writing lessons is also included, along with complete answer keys. These are comprehensive but inexpensive texts that can be used alongside Writing Strands or another writing program for a complete English course. The series features a revised sequence of skills and more nonfiction activities.

The two newest additions to this series are kindergarten and first grade and are aligned to state & national standards. Written at a grade appropriate level, the kindergarten workbook covers parts of speech (nouns, verbs, pronouns), capitalization (I, names, first word in a sentence), punctuation (periods & question marks), while still working on the alphabet, letter sounds, and more. Chapter 5 is a 'writer's guide' in which students will practice using telling words, proofreading, and writing a friendly letter. The first grade book covers parts of speech (common & proper nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives), types of sentences (statements, questions, exclamations, combining sentences), capitalization (first word in a sentence, I, names, places, days, months), punctuation (period, question mark, commas in dates/cities & states, apostrophes), subject-verb agreement, contractions, irregular & past tense verbs, plurals, pronouns I and me, synonyms, antonyms and more. The 'writer's guide' for grade one takes students through the steps of writing a paper - planning, writing, revising, proofreading, publishing, and writing a friendly letter. The answer key is found at the back of the books. These books are done in a visually appealing format, with wide lines, cute graphics, and a good amount of white space so they aren't visually overwhelming for young learners.