Using the words glass and grass, students practice using the G-blends at the start of a word. Students have to write a sentence using the word and think of three more words that start with the same blend.
Ions are electrically charged particles. Cations have a positive (+ ) charge. Anions have a negative (-) charge. Ions have a charge because electrons can be transferred. The charge is produced when atoms gain electrons (to form anions) or lose electrons (to form cations). Sodium, Na, is in group 1A. It loses one electron to form the sodium ion, Na1+. The charge is written after the symbol as a superscript.
We call the positive charged atom a cation, and the negatively charged one, an anion. hi. The actual bond occurs because the two new ions now have opposite charges, which attract them to one another. Ionic bonding occurs between a pair of atoms when one of the atoms gives up its valence electrons to the other. The result is that both atoms have filled shells. Both atoms also end up with a charge, one negative, and the other positive. We call the positive charged atom a cation, and the negatively charged one, an anion.