For teachers · Classes 7 to 10 · ICSE / CBSE / SSLC
You teach the notation. The students build it first.
For chemistry teachers and tutors of Classes 7 to 10 under ICSE, CBSE and SSLC. In the Playbook, students build each formula from punch-out tokens before they write it, mark their own work against the printed answers, and repeat a chapter's Exercises when the score falls below its gate. Below: the lesson, the marking, and what you may do.
Play the round below before you read any further. It is the first formula Chapter II works, built the way every later one is.
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 numbered tokens is right. The valency is how many the element combines as; it is not part of the finished formula. 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 join
Choose a token to begin.
NaCl
The valencies crossed over. Sodium combines as one and chloride combines as one, so one of each is all it takes — and a subscript of 1 is never written. This is the book's first worked example, on page 28.
That is one word in the language of chemistry. 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.
Step I
Alphabets
- Na
- Cl
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.
Step II
Words
- Na
- 1
- Cl
Chemical formula. Join an element to a radical using its valency — the join is the formula. Sodium is monovalent and so is chloride, so they join one to one.
NaCl
37 of 40 — 92.5% — before Chapter III opens.
Step III
Sentences
- Na
- 1
- Cl
Chemical equations. The equation written for a reaction has to balance, because a chemical change rearranges atoms and never makes or destroys one.
HClplus NaOH→ NaClplus H2O
51 of 55 to finish.
A chapter, from the front of the class.
The book repeats one loop in all 3 chapters. In a class it comes down to three things a teacher does, and what a teacher deliberately does not. It is set by chapter and Exercise, not by the clock: the book does not say how many periods a chapter takes.
Step 1 · Tokens
Have each student punch out their own tokens from the 2 sheets in the book, and keep the charts open. The 6 Activities in Chapter I are done with the tokens in hand.
You do not prepare a chart or a set of cards. Both charts and every token are printed in the book.
Step 2 · Example
Work one formula on the board from a student’s copy. Chapter II opens on it: place the Na and Cl tokens side by side, put their valency tokens, 1 and 1, on top, and inter-change them. Rule 1 drops the 1s, and the answer is NaCl.
You do not hand over the answer first. The student places the tokens and reads the formula off them.
Step 3 · Exercise
Set an Exercise. There are 19 across the three chapters, 279 questions in all.
You do not read the answers out. They are enclosed in the book for the student to check against once the Exercise is finished.
What you mark, and when a student moves on.
Students mark their own work against the answers enclosed in the book and write the score on the evaluation chart on page 111. What a teacher reads is the chart and the gate, set out below.
The gate
The book sends a student back. On purpose.
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
Four places to slow down.
Four rules of the book are worth slowing down for, each with the example it builds. They are rules, not counts of how often anything goes wrong.
Four metals have two valencies each.
Iron, copper, mercury and lead each have two element tokens, one for each valency state in Chart I, so the student picks the token for the valency they mean before building anything. Iron [Ferrous] with oxide gives FeO; Iron [Ferric] with oxide gives Fe2O3.
Equal subscripts are not written.
Calcium and oxide are both divalent, so the inter-change gives 2 and 2, and Rule 2 writes neither: CaO. The same holds with a compound radical, and then there is no bracket either (Exception ii): calcium and sulphate give CaSO4.
A compound radical takes a bracket only when it is repeated.
Calcium and hydroxide give Ca(OH)2, because the subscript of the compound radical is 2 (Rule 3). Sodium and hydroxide give NaOH: the subscript is 1, so there is no bracket (Exception i).
Brackets and unequal subscripts together.
Aluminium is trivalent and sulphate divalent, so the subscripts are 2 and 3 and the radical needs its bracket: Al2(SO4)3.
Look up every formula with the parts that build it, or check a valency.
Against your syllabus
Every board asks for it before it teaches it.
The Playbook does not follow a board’s chapter order, and it is not a substitute for the textbook. It teaches the notation each board assumes a student already has — which, as each board’s own textbook shows, is assumed rather earlier than it is explained.
| ICSE Indian Certificate of Secondary Education | CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education | SSLC Secondary School Leaving Certificate, Kerala | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chemistry starts | Class 6 | Class 7 | Class 8 |
| Classes covered | Classes 6 to 9 | Classes 7 to 10 | Classes 8 to 10 |
| Chemical formulas to write | Set by theme rather than enumerated | 79 listed | 52 listed |
| Chemical equations to write | Set by theme rather than enumerated | 70 listed | 51 listed |
| When writing them is taught | Symbol, valency, formula of radicals and balancing — Class 9 | Writing a formula — Class 9. Writing and balancing an equation — Class 10. | Writing a formula — Class 9. |
ICSE — the gap
The Council’s own annual Pupils Performance Analysis identifies writing symbols, chemical formulas and balanced equations as a persistent difficulty.
CBSE — the gap
Formulas appear from Class 7 and equations from Class 7, but writing a formula is not explained until Class 9 and balancing not until Class 10.
SSLC — the gap
Balancing equations is explained in Class 8, Part I, Chapter IV, before a chemical formula or a chemical equation has been explained at all.
Your board, class by class.
One book covers Classes 7 to 10 across all three boards. Each board's own list, set out by class: see the ICSE list, the CBSE list or the Kerala SSLC list. The lists are this site's inventory of what each board sets, so have them checked against the current edition before they go to a school.
What is free for your classroom.
Print the practice sets: free and ungated, formulas to write and equations to balance from each board's own syllabus, ready to print as they are. The valency chart Chapter I teaches and the index of every formula the three boards ask for, both linked above, are free too, and work an equation through shows each one step by step.
Look inside shows the book itself: the charts, a token sheet and an Exercise with its answers.
What you may do with the book.
A teacher is the reader this is written for, so it is stated plainly. The same two lists are on the copyright page, which is the one that governs: read it in full.
Without asking
- · Quoting a short passage from the book or the site, with the title and Playway Books named. Fair dealing for criticism or review under s. 52(1)(a)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957.
- · Linking to any page here, from anywhere. No permission, no fee, no conditions, ever.
- · Showing a page of the book to a class you are teaching, from the copy you own.
- · Reading a page out to a class, or working through an exercise with them on a board.
- · Printing one page of this website for your own reference, or saving it to read offline.
- · Reviewing the book, quoting from it in the review, and photographing your own copy for that review.
- · Reporting on the book or the company, and using the wordmark to identify what you are writing about.
- · Making an accessible-format copy for a person with a disability. Section 52(1)(zb) permits it; write to us anyway and we will help rather than make you rely on the exception.
Ask first
- · Copying any part of the book for more than one person — a class set, a department set, a coaching batch, a photocopied worksheet given out.
- · Reproducing the token sheets, the charts, the evaluation chart or any exercise in any form, including redrawing, retyping or reformatting them.
- · Uploading a scan, a photograph of a spread, or a PDF of any part of the book to any website, drive, group, channel or file-sharing service.
- · Including any part of it in a course pack, a question bank, a worksheet, a study guide, a printed note or teaching material you distribute or sell.
- · Translating or adapting it, into another language or into an app, a video, a slide deck, a worksheet generator or a chatbot.
- · Using any part of the book or the site to train, fine-tune, evaluate or ground a machine learning model, or including it in a dataset built for that.
- · Reproducing more than a short quotation on a website, in a book, in a thesis or in a printed publication.
- · Using the Playway Books name, the wordmark or the Playbook mark on anything you publish, sell, teach or advertise.
- · Reprinting the book, in any territory, in any language, in any format, including print-on-demand.
The Copyright Act, 1957 has a teaching exception (s. 52(1)(i)), and the courts have read it broadly. Playway Books' position is that it was not written to let a class avoid buying a consumable workbook, and that a photocopy has no punch-out tokens in it, which is why one copy per student is how the book is designed and priced. If a copy for every student is out of reach, ring the Kochi office before you copy: there is bulk pricing.
Getting copies.
For a class set, ask for bulk pricing; a sample copy goes to a school that asks. For one copy, find a retailer or a stockist.
Questions
What teachers ask
Does the Playbook replace the school textbook?
No. It teaches the notation — symbols, valency, formulas, equations — that ICSE, CBSE and SSLC all set and none of them stops to teach. The textbook still carries the rest of the syllabus.
How many periods should I plan for a chapter?
The book does not set a number of periods. A chapter closes when the score reaches its gate — Chapter I at 172 of 184 — so the pace is the class’s own, and a chapter that falls short is repeated.
Do students mark their own work?
Yes. Every answer is enclosed in the book, 19 Exercises in all, and the evaluation chart on p111 is where the score is written. What a teacher checks is the chart and the gate.
What happens to a student who scores below the gate?
The whole set of Exercises for that chapter is repeated before the next chapter opens. Chapter II asks for chemical formulas, and a student who cannot yet recall a valency cannot write one.
May I photocopy the token sheets or the exercises for my class?
Not without permission. A photocopy has no punch-out tokens in it, and the tokens are the book — which is why one copy per student is how it is designed and priced. If a copy for every student is out of reach, ring the Kochi office before you copy: there is bulk pricing.
What may I do with the book in class without asking?
Show a page to a class you are teaching, from the copy you own; read a page out; work an exercise through on the board; quote a short passage with the title and Playway Books named. The copyright page lists what needs permission, and teachers’ requests are the ones answered quickest.
Which boards and classes does one book cover?
Classes 7 to 10, across ICSE, CBSE and SSLC. The syllabus pages set the book’s topics against each board’s own, class by class.
Can I get a sample copy?
A school can ask for one sample copy, with bulk pricing, on the For Schools page. If you teach on your own, the book is sold by the retailers and stockists listed on Where to Buy.
Every question, including what is in the box and what it costs