Classes 7 to 10 · ICSE / CBSE / SSLC
Play a game. Learn a subject.
Chemistry — The Mystery! Made Easy™
Chemistry is a language, so it is learned in the order a language is learned: alphabets, then words, then sentences. The alphabets are thirty elements and twenty-five radicals, printed as punch-out tokens on two sheets inside the book. A student does not reach the next chapter until they have scored 93.5% on this one.
- Ca
- CO3
- 2
Token Play
Join a token to a token. Watch the formula appear.
One round, the way a student plays it on a table with the punch-out sheet from The Language of Chemistry.
Choose a token, then choose the slot it belongs in. One element, one radical, and the valency that joins them — only one of the three blue tokens is right. On a keyboard: tab to a token, press Enter to pick it up, then tab or arrow to a slot and press Enter to drop it. Escape puts it back.
On the bench
The formula
Choose a token to begin.
CaCO3
That is one word in the language. The book has 19 exercises and 279 questions like it, and the tokens come punched out on 2 sheets inside it.
The method
Alphabets, words, sentences.
The same order a child learns to read in, applied to a subject that is normally taught as a list of facts to be remembered. Each step ends in a score, and below the score the step is repeated.
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Step I
Alphabets
- Na
- OH
The full name, symbol, formula and valency of thirty elements and twenty-five radicals — as tokens you can pick up.
Sodium = Na
172 of 184 — 93.5% — before Chapter II opens.
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Step II
Words
- Na
- 1
- OH
Chemical formula. Join an element to a radical using its valency — the join is the formula.
NaOH
37 of 40 — 92.5% — before Chapter III opens.
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Step III
Sentences
- Na
- 1
- OH
Chemical equations. A sentence in chemistry is a reaction that balances on both sides.
HCl plus NaOH → NaCl plus H2O
51 of 55 to finish.
Appreciated, and in print since 1996
- CISCE
- 18 December 2002
- NCERT
- 1 July 2008
- Published since
- 1996
- ISBN
- 978-81-959241-0-3
“…certainly will help in making the basic concept of writing correct chemical formula and balanced equations clearer to students.”
“Activities given in the manual are thought provoking.”
Both are letters of appreciation for the method. Neither is accreditation, nor approval of the book as a prescribed text, nor current or ongoing. Each is reproduced in full, with how it came about, on the About page.
The gate
The book sends a student back.
Each chapter ends in a score read against a chart at the back. Below the threshold the whole set of exercises is repeated before the next chapter opens. Chapter I closes at 93.5%, which is a standard, not a pass mark.
Chapter I · Alphabets
172 / 184
93.5% to proceed
Chapter II · Words
37 / 40
92.5% to proceed
Chapter III · Sentences
51 / 55
92.7% to proceed
What is in the box
A Playbook is not a book. It contains a game.
2 punch-out token sheets
Thirty elements, twenty-five radicals and the valencies that join them, printed and die-cut so a student pushes them out and puts them on a table. The word on each token is the code and the colour repeats it — an element, a radical, a valency — and a radical carries an inner ring as well, so the three types stay apart on a photocopy and for a reader who cannot separate the red from the green.
- Na
- OH
- 1
The three types are told apart by what they carry and how they are drawn, not by colour — a radical carries a ring, a valency is smaller and set in figures.
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112 pages
The method, the charts, the activities and the exercises — in the order a student works through them.
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19 exercises, 279 questions
Across 6 activities and 2 charts. Enough repetition for the notation to become automatic, which is the entire point of drilling a language.
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All answers enclosed
The book marks itself. A parent who never studied chemistry can still check the work, and nothing is held back for a separate guide.
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Evaluation chart
Scores are read against a chart, because the chapter gate is a number and not an opinion.
Look inside
Four pages, and you will know whether this works.
Nobody buys a method they have not seen. Two of the four pages that decide it: what arrives in the post, and the elements with their valencies.
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The book, and the two sheets
The book and its two punch-out sheets, laid out together — what a parent unboxes before a single formula appears.
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The elements, by valency
Thirty elements with symbol and valency, grouped here by how many bonds each one makes — the same information Chart I carries, read a different way.
Questions
The four questions that decide it.
Which class is the Playbook for?
The Language of Chemistry covers the notation taught across Classes 7 to 10 in the ICSE, CBSE and SSLC syllabuses. It teaches what all three boards assume — symbols, valency, formulas and balanced equations — rather than following a particular board’s chapter order.
How is this different from a guide book?
A guide book explains the chapter your child has already been taught. The Playbook teaches the language underneath every chapter: the name, symbol and valency of thirty elements and twenty-five radicals as punch-out tokens, then chemical formulas, then balanced equations. It also gates progress — Chapter I will not open onto Chapter II below 172 of 184, which is 93.5 per cent — and no guide book does that.
What happens if my child scores below the gate?
The whole set of exercises for that chapter is repeated. Chapter I closes at 172 of 184, Chapter II at 37 of 40 and Chapter III at 51 of 55 — 93.5 per cent, 92.5 per cent and 92.7 per cent — and a student below the threshold works the exercises again rather than moving on. The answers to all 19 exercises are enclosed and there is an evaluation chart at the back, so the book marks itself; a parent who never studied chemistry can still use it.
Do schools get a sample copy?
Yes. Playway Books sends a sample copy to a school that asks, along with bulk pricing and a syllabus mapping for ICSE, CBSE and SSLC. The request form is on the For Schools page, and the Kochi office can be rung on +91 99471 23678.
Every question, including what is in the box and what it costs
Two more ways in
For parents is the method written as what an adult actually does at home, without knowing chemistry. Playbook, textbook or guide book sets the three side by side, including the two rows this one loses.
And the method itself is published in full, free: the valencies, the formulas they build, the equations, the terms, and practice sets for all three boards.
Ready when you are.
There is no cart on this site. The Playbook ships from Amazon.in, Flipkart and JioMart, and it is on the shelf in Kerala — every store, with its own page, is one click away.