The Periodic Table

Understanding atoms, and the amount of electrons, protons, neutrons, and how they are organized on the periodic table can daunt a 5th grader. My first year teaching fifth grade my co-teacher Niah gave this idea to us that she had learned about at a science convention.

I give the men to the students, and tell them that they are meant to be in a specific order, but that is all I tell them. They have to figure out the order.

If they struggle extremely with the order, I then give them the outline of the first 18 elements, but don't give them the order. This at least aides in their picture of understanding.

The order: Arms represent the amount of orbitals. The fingers represent the amount of electrons on each orbital. The size of the belly helps the students see that they weigh more as they get larger across the table, and the pattern represents the column, so the students can see that they have something in common going up and down. Also, what you can't see very well in the picture is that each man has a smiley, frowny, or straight face. The faces represent how the atom feels (unstable ones have frowny faces - they only have 1 electron on their valence shell, and stable ones have very happy faces - they have 8 electrons on their valence shell).

Once the students have a picture with the men, it is a lot easier to understand how to draw electrons, and how electrons interact to create molecules. It truly does help my fifth graders understanding atoms and molecules. I feel like this would have helped me in high school science as well!