Chemical element cards
Kids love trading cards. Here is a way to use trading cards in an educational way, reinforcing learning. You will find that students who balk at reports will gladly write information on the back of their cards. You can think of them as mini-reports. The students can either keep all of their own cards, or they make extras to exchange with friends. Either way, they learn a lot and have fun.
Instructions
Make Educational Trading Cards
1. Choose a topic for the cards. The topic should provide the students with plenty of choices without overwhelming them with options. For example: animals of the Arctic, seashells, wildflowers, chemical elements, flags of the world, state symbols or insects found in your county or state. Middle school students might be interested in doing topics such as great military generals or famous inventions.
2. Provide sources of information about the topic, so that the students can glean the facts they will need for making the cards. Allow reading and research time before you distribute the art supplies.
3. Distribute at least a dozen blank index cards to each student and provide pencils, pens and colored pencils. If you want the students to be able to cut and paste pictures onto the cards, provide pictures, scissors and glue sticks.
4. Tell the students that they will be using both sides of the cards. One side will be the front and will have the name of the item, a picture and any other small piece of information that is essential, such as a date in history or the group to which it belongs. For example, if it was for military generals you would write their name, date of birth and death dates and their nationality. For a chemical element you would write its name, symbol and atomic number. Keep the general format for the front sides the same on all the cards, so that they look like they are a set. The back will be for additional information about that item: a brief description, a list of facts, a location or anything else that is appropriate for that item.
5. Allow the students a generous amount of time to compete the cards. It is best not to do them all at one sitting. You might want to consider allowing up to a week, with the individual work sessions being less than an hour each.
6. Instruct students to make duplicate cards if they want to have some to trade.
7. Remind students to make sure their name is on each of their cards. Their names can be printed in very small letters as long as they appear somewhere on the card.
8. Plan a time when they can show their cards to their classmates. Have them sit in a large circle and begin handing cards around until they get back to their original owners. If the students want to actually trade cards, this can be done after they are shown around.
