Periodic Tables and ideas

Any ideas for fun periodic table games?” Here are a few of the ones they came up with:

  • Bingo! “Write names in boxes, call out numbers and symbols. My students love it,” says Jana Blake Chapline.

  • Breakout: “I create a breakout/lockbox with periodic table and a project where they have to write a word or phrase using only chemical symbols.” (Cyndia Larrimore)

  • Chemical formula: “I let my kids pick a food, drink, or product, then Google the chemical formula. Then they make a poster or write the formula on a class poster,” suggests Sheila Libecap.

  • Periodic table battleship: “Use file folders and add the periodic tables to top and bottom. Laminate and use dry erase markers,” says Dani Stone.

  • Quick Six: This free game encourages students to become familiar with the chemical elements. (Susan Waymire)

  • Relay Race: “I use a relay race. Index cards with the symbol (color coded for solid, liquid, gas). The groups have a table. The first student from each team runs down. I give them a card and pick…atomic mass to search. They run back, find the number, then run back and tell me. There are so many things I can choose for them to find out. Since they are using the table, it is a fun way to look around at all the details (e.g. groups, rows, mass, number, state at STP, metal, non-metal, metalloid…woohoo!” (Jill Parliman Kibler)


PBS Learning Media offers an interactive periodic table as well. One item that will catch your attention is the mystery elements activity.

The table offers information about each of the elements, and you get to explore their properties. You also see its Bohr model representation which shows a planetary diagram of the components. In this model, negatively charged electrons orbit a small, positively charged nucleus.

Wlonk provides one of the easiest, most information-rich interactive periodic tables. It includes wonderful examples of the role each element plays in our lives. For example, titanium (as shown below) is what we rely on for aerospace. You not only find out what elements are useful or used for, but you also learn a bit about the elements themselves.

If a teacher wants to excite students about a subject, one of the Google Arts & Culture Experiments might get them hooked. Get them composing like Beethoven, Bach and Mozart by creating melodies with AI. You want them to think about their global footprint? Then the CO2 footprint of food we eat might do the trick. There are also simple, fun ways to engage with art such as the art coloring book or the collaborative puzzle party.