Your body uses iron in foods like meat and spinach to help keep healthy. The metals iron, gold, silver, aluminum, and copper are elements. An element is a building block of matter. There are over 100 different elements. Some elements, like the metals iron and copper, are solids.
Some elements are liquids.
Some elements, like helium, are gases. Each element has its own special properties. When you combine the elements iron and oxygen you get a compound called rust. A compound may form when two or more elements are put together. The compound salt is made up of the elements sodium and chlorine.