Exploring the Periodic Table

We've been spending a few minutes each day with the periodic table.  Here are some resources I wanted to share with you.  :-)

We are enjoying this book

amazon

Check your local library!  I suggest this book for maybe 3rd grade and up.  My 4th and 6th grader are enjoying it.  It's above my K student, completely.  :-)  He likes the experiments though!

Some quick snapshots of what you'll find.  Very orderly...my kind of book! :-)

Good intro to what the elements are.

Intro to the periodic table, as well.

 

You can find youtube clips about the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in connection to introducing the periodic table. The following clip is a TedEd clip.

The genius of Mendeleev's periodic table - Lou Serico

A simple periodic table and poem to go with it.  

Here is the link to the table that I printed for my kiddos.

There are so many options out there!  This one is by Education.jlab.org.  I like that it shows solid/liquid/gas/radioactive or artificially made at room temperature.

I especially like the poem.  :-) We are going to use it as copywork. 

At the beginning of each category, they have a "Meet the ...." which gives us a simple history of why they were categorized the way they were.  Then a few of the elements, from that category, are discussed a little more deeply....each one having a little "poem" to help remember it. 

With each element they discuss more, there is a simple experiment and explanations. 

At the end, they have a page like this that "touches" on the elements they didn't go into more deeply.

Making the Periodic Table "fun" to learn.  I don't feel it's necessary to actually memorize it all but if they enjoy it...and learn where the information is...that will serve them well in their "further education".  :-)

And last, but not least,

TedEd Videos!

The kids have really enjoyed these.  Maybe it's just my kids.  Ha!  Short little clips, usually less then 10 minutes about most of the elements on the table.  We went through a few together but it was becoming very time consuming so we do the video clips that go along with the book, for each group I introduce, and then they do the rest of that group on their own time.  :-)  They aren't complaining either.  They want to go through ALL the videos. Ha!

There is a table that shows Relative Abundance in the TedEd clips.  The kids loved it so I went looking for one to print.  :-)

Found this one on the Washington Post site.

This was created in the 70s...so kind of old, but we had a good conversation about the difficulty in estimating something like this.  :-)  Cool infographic though!

There are SO MANY resources out there to go with exploring the Periodic Table.  We may pull a few more activities in as time goes on...or we may hold off and come back to it another time, if interest lessens.