Se7en + 1 Fun Ways to Get to Know the Periodic Table, and it’s a GiveAway…

I cannot believe that it is possible to go through your entire education without at some stage meeting up with the elements on the Periodic Table. For some it might seem like a completely pointless exercise, but apart from the obvious reason that some sort of “element question” appears in every kind of quiz game… ever. It is actually incredibly useful to have this foundation well in place and understood long before you have to actually conquer chemistry. For most of us a grasp of the basics before we dive in is foundational to our long term success in a topic. So in our last few weeks of school for the year we are planning to conquer the Periodic table. I am all for little by little and day by day.

When I was in grade 7 I remember staying in after school day after day because I refused to believe it was possible to learn such an enormous list of the names and symbols of so many elements. My science teacher said, “Of course you can learn a long list.” And she left it at that. Well after over a week of missing sports practice and potentially missing a match, not to mention almost dropped from the hockey team. I discovered that I was indeed quite able and in fact very motivated to learn that long list. Priorities. It was a battle of wills more than a battle of the brain… and the science teacher was winning all the way. I may not remember every detail about the periodic table, but I did learn that I can learn lists of facts and fast, and that has stood by me all my life. Lesson learnt, kudos to my science teacher.

Skip forward a couple of years and it is time that our little school comes to terms with the Periodic Table. and I really want my gang to have a better experience at learning this than I did. We started, where all good projects begin, with a pile of post-it-notes.

We colour coded them to match our table. I know some and then with some swift and elaborate folding we have begun to slowly learn a few facts…

1. Funky Products: I absolutely love these Periodic Table Blocks on Imagine Childhood, and would you look at these Chemistry Crayons.

2. The Elements by Theodore Gray: Apart from the brilliant book, this is a fantastic website and resource for all things elemental… Not to mention his Wooden Periodic Table, click on any element and it links you to all the little details. You will want to explore here, it is incredible.
3. Printable Periodic Tables: This is the one we use and my kids all have a copy of it in the science journals… I believe that familiarity will help them learn it. But there are any number of printable Periodic tables and this link has every printable you could ever need or want.
4. A Bit of a Scavenger Hunt: What better way to learn about the ins and outs of the Periodic than by filling one in yourself, step by step, this is a bit of a Periodic Table Scavenger Hunt, something to with your kids and by the time you have finished working through it they will have created their own Periodic Table.
5. Lesson Plans: If you are a lesson plan type of homeschooler, then look look no further… this is the ultimate resource. The American Chemistry Society has Middle School Chemistry on the Periodic Table, with lots of printables, activity pages and links to fun goodies.
6. And then there is You Tube:

   • For a Ten Minute Crash Course of the Periodic Table.
   • Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements” animated.
   • They Might Be Giants: And Meet the Elements.
   • How to Memorise the Periodic Table, the easiest way possible. This is a three part video… and teaches the first 20 elements. Thereafter you have to pay for the rest of the videos… honestly, 20 elements is a great place to start.
7. And then Games: There is The Periodic Table Battleship…

And the Se7en + 1th…

8. Cartooning: A list of all the elements as cartoon characters… memorable…I think so!!!

So we have this really cool Periodic Table Poster from the MapStudio to help us learn… it has everything you could possibly need to learn from a Periodic Table, colour coded into groups and each element has it’s atomic number, atomic mass and symbol. It is up on the wall and a quick reference guide as we power our way through it. One person has already claimed it for next to their bed… What can I say, some kids lean towards fabulous funky facts.

We have not one, but two of these fabulous Periodic Table Posters to Give Away… all wrapped up in a roll and ready to mail anywhere in the world. This GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of play on Friday 22 April, 2016. We will draw and publish the winners in the Fabulous Fun Post after that. I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway.

Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and happy commenting!!!

We would like to thank MapStudio who supplied us with Periodic Tables to review and GiveAway. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed in it are as usual, entirely our own.