Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Book Review on "Matter: Its Properties & Its Changes"

What this book is all about:

This is an elementary chemistry book written for 3rd to 6th grade of the American education system. In this book, chemistry is made alive by infusing it with activities and applied learning. This dynamic full-color book provides over 20 great ways to learn about bubbles, water, colors, salt, and the periodic table, all through interactive lessons that ground students in their faith in God. The interesting contents also help tap into the natural curiosity of younger learners with activities utilizing common household items, teaching them why and how things work, what things are made of, and where they came from. Some of the topics covered in this book:

  • The physical properties of chemical substances

  • Why adding heat causes most chemical changes to react faster

  • The scientist who organized a chart of the known elements

  • The difference between chemical changes and physical changes 

  •  For more information about this book, please click here.


    Mommy's review of this book:
    The moment Mommy receives this book, it is love at first sight! This elementary chemistry book is written in a very interactive and lively manner to keep the curiosity and interest of young learners. The book is full-coloured and has lots of questions, facts, activities, plus things for young learners to reflect upon their observations, surroundings and naturally-occuring things. Explanations on why things happen like this or like that are also explained in a very simple and easily understandable manner without being overloaded with too much scientific terms. Reading this book makes Mommy to want to go back to Mommy's primary schooldays. Overall, Mommy would give this book 4 stars out of 5.


    Declaration:
    Mommy receives this book free from New Leaf Publishing Group as part of book reviewers' programme. All opinions are purely Mommy's whereby the review need not necessarily be positive.

    6 comments:

    Alice Law said...

    I think Juan Juan would have interest with the activities in this book, I found she absorbs like a black hole if the learning involved interactive activities and experiments!

    I normally goggled online for science and physic experiment, it's pretty hard to find books that would make easier for the little ones to understand!;D

    Hayley said...

    Wow, you read this kinda book? good good, then you can share with us some of the facts :P

    cre8tone said...

    Wow! Looks like a nice book!

    Alice Phua said...

    Alice Law,

    Yes, this book is more suitable for children equivalent to our Malaysian euducation system from Standards 4 to 6 and maybe up to Forms 1 to 2 as well. The words are not in large print, so definitely it's not suitable for very young children.

    Hayley,

    I read this book to review this book because that is the 'contract' between myself and the book publisher. Otherwise, I don't normally have time to read a book completely because a lot of my time is taken up by my work alone, plus reading students' theses so that I can give marks to them, and jaga baby and the house, plus catching up on sleep ( I have a lot of sleep debt!).

    Prince n princess' mum, yes, it's a nice book, but more suitable for children from about Standards 4 to 6 and maybe Forms 1 and 2.

    Alice Law said...

    I don't actually limited Juan Juan and Xuan to children books, I found they have more interests with fully illustrated books(like the one you reviewed) regardless the words font. This is also one of the reason why they are good at general knowledges but not with the school syllabus!!!>_<

    Alice Phua said...

    Alice Law, since your kids have more interest with books that are fully illustrated regardless of font size, then I guess your kids are exceptional from most kids out there! As for Juan Or, I have shown him the National Geographic magazine before and he seems indifferent. And when I show him children's books, there are some he likes, some he doesn't. Yet I cannot really pin-point what kind of children books he will like and what kind he won't like becos I can't see any obvious trend or pattern underlying his preference (except for books with choo-choo train illustrations or photos!).