Home Geography for Primary Grades · Lesson XLI · Unit 9: Things found in the earth
41. Things found in the earth: coal, salt and metals
Goal: Your child names things we dig from the earth, tells a mineral from a metal, and knows a use for coal, iron, steel, gold, silver, tin, lead, copper, zinc and brass.
You'll need
- A magnet
- A collection of small metal things: a steel paper clip, an iron nail, an aluminum foil ball, a copper-colored coin, a brass key or button, a tin can (smooth edge only), a piece of jewelry
- A little table salt
- A pencil (to look at its "lead")
- A geography notebook (any notebook kept just for these lessons) and a pencil
What's in the book
The earth holds coal, iron, gold, silver, tin, lead, copper, salt, oil, diamonds and building stone. Minerals are dug from mines. Coal does much of our work (soft or bituminous coal, and hard anthracite). Salt comes from mines and wells. Some minerals are metals: a rhyme lists the uses of iron, then steel, gold, silver, tin-plate, lead and shot, the pencil's graphite, copper, zinc and brass. Writing tasks on tin, coal and other metals.
The lesson, step by step
Hidden treasures
Read the opening paragraphs. Ask: What things come out of the earth? List them together.
Coal, iron, gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, mercury, and salt are called minerals.
SayThe hole dug in the earth to get them out is called a mine.
Coal
Read about coal. Ask: What work does coal do for us?
SayIn 1894 coal heated houses and ran trains, ships and factories. Today much of it is burned to make electricity.
What we know now: the book says "some day you will be able to understand how coal was made." Coal formed from plants of ancient swampy forests, buried and pressed underground for millions of years.
Salt
Taste a pinch of salt. Ask: Does all salt come out of mines? (No; some comes from salt wells, and some is made by letting sea water dry up.) Read about the salt mine rooms that glitter like a fairy palace.
The iron rhyme
Read the rhyme about iron.
Iron vessels cross the ocean,
Iron everything we use.
SaySteel is iron made very hard. Hunt around the kitchen for things made of steel: knives, spoons, pots, scissors.
Magnet test
Hold the magnet to each metal object. Which ones stick? Iron and steel do; copper, brass, gold, silver and aluminum do not. Sort them into two piles.
Gold, silver, tin, lead, copper
Read about each metal and ask the book's questions: Why are gold coins and rings not pure gold? What does "lustrous" mean? Why is a tin cup really iron? Look at a pencil tip: is it made of lead?
Safety: lead and mercury are poisonous. Never touch mercury from an old thermometer or play with lead.
Write
The book asks the child to write five lines about coal, five about tin, and what they know of iron, gold, silver, copper and lead. Pick one: your child writes three to five sentences about coal or iron.
Afterwards
Start a "things from the earth" box: a lump of coal if you can find one, salt, a nail, a copper penny, a pencil, a rock.
Tip
What we know now: the book says pencil "lead" is graphite, "a kind of coal." Graphite is a form of carbon, the same stuff coal is mostly made of, but it is not coal. Pencil leads are graphite mixed with clay. Lead pipes, lead paint and lead shot are no longer used in homes because lead is poisonous.
Answers to the book's problems
Things from the earth: coal, iron, gold, silver, tin, lead, copper, mercury, salt, oil, diamonds and building stone. Coal heats homes and runs engines in mills, factories, ships and trains (and today makes much of our electricity). Soft (bituminous) coal burns with much flame and smoke; hard (anthracite) coal burns with little blaze but great heat. Gas was made from soft coal. Salt comes from mines, from salt wells, and from sea water dried by the sun. Steel is iron made very hard; knives, axes, needles, pins and scissors are made of it. Gold for money and jewelry is mixed with a harder metal so it does not wear away, because pure gold is very soft; the man who makes gold watches, chains and rings is a goldsmith or jeweler. Lustrous means bright and shining; silver is the most lustrous metal, and iron is not very lustrous. Tin-plate is thin iron dipped in melted tin, so a tin cup is really made of iron. Lead is heavy and soft. A pencil "lead" is graphite, not lead. Copper does not rust and is used for cooking pots and wire. Brass is copper and zinc mixed, used for keys, doorknobs, buttons and band instruments.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.