Periodic Table with a Twist!
This was my students’ all time favorite project of the year and mine, too! I had them do this project because we started out learning about chemical reactions. I was going to start out with a tournament between elements in which the children had to argue that their element was the most valuable, interesting, or useful. I took this idea from byrdseed.com. The tournament bracket idea evolved into this more fantastic project.

Children chose an element that they wanted to research. I did this with elementary students, so what I was asking of them was pretty advanced! I asked them to find the group, period, symbol, atomic mass, atomic number, atomic structure, and the other elements that they reacted with. They created a rectangle to wear on their chest so that they resembled a periodic table rectangle. In addition they had to dress up like their element. Children created a mini speech from their research explaining the element to parents and the students who visited. I received many compliments about this project! I called it the Living Periodic Table. I love that this name added some mystery since the idea is very original. I didn’t “google it”. The idea naturally came as we were working on research. I arranged the students in the cafeteria in rows and columns like the real Periodic Table. This is why it was called “The Living Periodic Table”. Another added element that I loved was when I told the students they had to defend why their element was better than another element. The children absolutely LOVED this!
“I’m better than you because I’m more malleable,” one metal argued with another.

One more aspect that added fun to this was that the children had to create a button that someone had to push in order to listen to the speech about their element. This idea is similar to when one walks through a wax museum to listen to the exhibit. I had been collecting lids, and the children painted and/or decorated lids to make their button. They could place the button anywhere around their exhibit. Many of the students decided to place it on the Periodic Table rectangle they were wearing. Teacher alert…I had to caution the girls about doing so because I wouldn’t want the button to be inappropriately placed on a girl’s anatomy. Ha! I’m sure you understand!

I invited parents to drop by and listen to their child while we were set up. They were set up in the cafeteria in the same order of the Periodic Table. This definitely made it amusing when all of the radioactive elements were closer together because of doing it this way! They definitely had fun debating about who was more deadly while wearing their caution tape! We didn’t have every element, but we had about 30 kids which is enough to make it work. All who came were impressed. It was a win, win.!


Teachers, if you decide to do this, know that I had children plan a speech that was about 90 seconds to describe their element. We worked on our public speaking skills beforehand. Also, at first I thought I would have to have classes walk through the exhibit in a line, but it really worked for the children to free flow. I scheduled about 10 minutes for a classroom to walk through the exhibit with about five minute for transition. Only children who can’t handle a little independent freedom would need to be supervised. I hope this sparks some unique lesson idea for you!
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