Chemistry: The Periodic Table

I came across a blog where Lisa is teaching her 5 and 7 year old girls The Periodic Table. Seeing that her children were able to grasp the concept, I was excited to try it with my children. The very next day I picked up a copy of this book at Borders.




The book comes with a periodic table, so I made several copies of the chart to use in our matching activities. I then laminated the chart. I cut out the individual elements, and laminated those, then cut them out. The children match the elements and have a lot of fun doing that. They ask questions about the elements. I look it up in the book and tell them about that element.



Here are the matches that they have so far.



Lisa emailed me some questions that she used with her children. Lisa created a scavenger hunt. I decided to use the questions as a Montessori style lesson. This isn't a true Montessori type work, I just use some of their concepts. I made these flash cards self correcting. First I place the questions down.



The the child finds the matching element and places it below the question. If I see them place a card incorrectly, I do not correct them. They will correct themselves in the next step .



Then the child flips over the cards to see if the markings match. Each set of matches have their own matching stamps. If it matches, it is correct. If it doesn't match, then the child reviews their work and finds the correct match



I haven't shown them this part. I will later. This will help them understand the different groups that the periodic table is broken down into.



If you flip it over, the name of that group is on it. This exercise will hopefully teach them the names of the groups and the location of the groups.



I am so excited about this project. I also started a little basket of things that contain the elements. Such as foil (aluminum) , silicon moisture packets (silicon), zinc cream (zinc), pencil (carbon). As we learn more, we will add items to our basket.