Fun Activities for Teaching the Periodic Table

The unit that I most love to teach is Atoms and the Periodic Table. I love this unit because the growth in my students’ understanding is so significant and they undergo a transformation before my eyes! With the exception of the occasional chemistry-obsessed student, most of my students start out this unit thinking that the Periodic Table is some sort of super complex graphic for brainiacs and mad scientists, or they simply think it’s an absolute bore.

But after a few weeks of study, they can navigate the families of elements on the table, interpret atomic structure based on an element’s position on the table, and glean information about how different atoms will interact with one another! Experiencing my students fall in love with the Periodic Table is amazing every year! In this post, I’m sharing some of my favorite activities to teach my middle school students about the Periodic Table.

#1: Periodic People Challenge

The Periodic Table is an amazing tool because it has SO MANY patterns embedded in it. These include the number of valence electrons, atomic radius, number of electron shells, reactivity, boiling and melting points, electron affinity and electronegativity, and more! My most favorite activity to jump-start a unit on Atoms and the Periodic Table is this Periodic People activity.

Student pairs try to arrange the sketches of these ‘suspicious characters’ into a repeating pattern that makes sense. Then, they use their pattern to try to figure out the characteristics of a ‘missing suspect’ in the case. Check out My Favorite Way to Introduce the Periodic Table post for more information about this activity!

#2: Get to Know the Elements Scavenger Hunt

This Get to Know the Elements Periodic Table in Pictures Scavenger Hunt worksheet goes with the beautifully illustrated Periodic Table at http://elements.wlonk.com.

This activity gives the students the chance to study the table, learn which everyday items contain which elements, and notice certain characteristics like which elements are found in the human body, which are found in the Earth’s crust, which are magnetic, which are radioactive, and more!

I print a colored class-set of the table front/back (there is more information on the back of the squares), and a worksheet for each student. The students enjoy looking at the pictures and seeing the elements in a “fresher” way! You could also have your students simply go to the website where the table is located and use this activity more like a webquest. The student sheet is included as a digital version, too!

#3: Metals, Non-metals, and Metalloids Lab

I like to use this Metals, Nonmetals, and Metalloids observation lab early-on in my students’ exploration of the elements and the Periodic Table because students do not need to know about atoms– they only need to know how to make observations and a general sense of the Periodic Table. Students will be making observations of the physical and chemical properties of pure element samples, grouping them into categories, and classifying them as metals, non-metals, or metalloids. This is a great inquiry lab that satisfies NGSS standards!

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You will need to gather element samples and some basic materials for each group of three students. I wrote the answer key to include aluminum, carbon, copper, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, antimony, calcium, and zinc, but you can use any combination of these elements for the lab. An editable file is included in the download so that you can change the elements if necessary.

You will also need: a hydrochloric acid solution, a copper (II) chloride solution, a nail, and a Chem plate or small test tubes and a test tube rack for each group. Also, you can set up a conductivity station with a conductivity apparatus (wires with tiny light bulb attached) or an electric conductivity meter if you don’t have enough of these for each group.

#4: Atoms Cornell Doodle Notes

Atoms make up everything! And most students do not have a grasp of what an atom is. I designed these Atoms Cornell Doodle Notes to be an approachable and fun introduction to atoms, subatomic particles, basic atomic structure, and reading the Periodic Table. These notes cover the basic structure and subatomic particles of an atom, and help students understand the information that can be found on each element’s square of the Periodic Table.

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You can have your students complete the hard-copy version or the digital version! And you can use the presentation for a whole-class lecture, paired group work, or individually-paced work. Never used Cornell Doodle Notes before? You can read more about them in this post and in this post!

 

#5: Bohr Diagram Manipulatives Activity

You will really hear the Eurekas! in your classroom during this activity. When students construct the Periodic Table in this Bohr Diagrams Atom Manipulatives Activity, they will see the patterns that exist in the table without you saying anything. This activity involves simple graphics of the atoms of elements #1-20 of the Periodic Table. This activity is great to use once your students understand that the “identity” of an atom can be determined by its number of protons, and that in a neutral atom the protons equal the electrons.

The students will arrange the diagrams and their corresponding element names into THE Periodic Table (#1-20). Then, they add to that the cards containing the number of valence electrons and the number of shells/energy levels for each element. Once their Periodic Table of atoms is constructed, the students can see the patterns of electron shells and numbers of valence electrons.

I love listening to my students do this activity because suddenly they “get” the relationship between the Periodic People Activity (#1 above) and the basic patterns in the actual Periodic Table! I find that this activity really sticks with the students and I am able to build on this later!

#6: Periodic Personalities Graphic Organizer

I have found that giving ‘personality’ to the element families is a great way help my students to understand the characteristics of the elements based on where they are located on the Periodic Table. For example, if your students can remember that the Alkali and Alkaline Earth metals are the ‘hippies’, they will also remember that these atoms give away their valence electrons … peace and love, man! If they can remember that the Halogens are the greedy guys, they will also remember that these atoms take valence electrons from others.

I created 8 different ‘personalities’ for this Periodic Personalities Graphic Organizer to help students to wrap their heads around the differences between elements. The Alkali Metals, Alkaline Earth Metals, Transition Metals, Lanthanides, Actinides, Poor Metals, Metalloids, Halogens, and Noble Gases groups are included! The ‘personalities’ stick because my students always refer back to this graphic throughout our unit on bonding and chemical reactions!

#7: Design Your Own Periodic Table Project

When I started teaching the Periodic Table, I tried to think of a way to make it student-centered to try to reach as many of my kiddos as possible. This Design Your Own Periodic Table Project was born and has become a crowd favorite! I am always amazed by my students’ creativity with this project and I always learn so much about each student. And bonus, this project is eye-candy for hallway bulletin boards!

Students choose a theme that contains at least 20 ‘things’ that can be arranged into a periodic pattern in two different ways. They can create a Periodic Table of the items. For example, I’ve had a student create a Periodic Table of Musical Instruments. For his table, each family is a different type of instrument (woodwinds, horns, strings, percussion) and the periodicity is by the instruments’ range with the largest range at the top of the family and the narrowest range at the bottom of the family.

My students have created Periodic Tables for all kinds of themes! The themes range from Friends characters to types of cereal, sneakers to surfboards, Boy Scout trips to places they’d like to travel!

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#8: Alien Periodic Table

This activity is a great way to assess your students’ understanding of the Periodic Table! I actually use this as an assessment grade in my class. This is a digital take on an alien periodic table that I used to have my students do on paper. Students are told that the alien scientists on another planet have made contact with Earth. The aliens are interested in comparing data about the elements that exist on their planet to those on Earth. Students are given some background information, a list of clues, a blank periodic table, and a ‘word bank’ of the alien periodic table squares. They must use the extraterrestrial data to arrange the alien elements onto the blank periodic table. Then, they must color-code the alien table using the family names.

You can grab a FREE DOWNLOAD of the DIGITAL ALIEN PERIODIC TABLE ACTIVITY! You can change the planet name to something relevant to you or your school! Share this assignment with your students via Google Classroom.

I hope that you learn to love teaching your students about the amazing Periodic Table as much as I do! A heads up that you can get all of these activities and more in my Atoms and the Periodic Table Bundle!