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This resource is designed to help students understand how elements in the periodic table are arranged. Students need to understand that the periodic table is a way of organizing all known elements based on their properties. Elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number, and elements in the same column, or group, have similar chemical behaviors. The periodic table also helps students predict how elements might interact, showing trends in properties like reactivity and atomic size across periods and groups. This resource contains 3 separate activities with an instruction sheet outlining how to use this resource:

Understanding electron structures

Students need to understand that electrons are arranged in specific energy levels, or shells, around the nucleus of an atom. Each shell can hold a certain number of electrons: the first shell can hold up to 2 electrons, the second can hold up to 8, and so on. These arrangements determine an element’s chemical properties, as electrons in the outermost shell, or valence electrons, are the ones involved in chemical reactions. With low ability students in a small class, you can use the blank electron structure sheets showing the element symbol and empty electron shells, and as a class you can use counters to show the electron structures of the atoms. With higher ability classes, you can either give pairs of student’s electron structures to fill in or put the blank electron structures around the sides of the room that they fill in then bring to the middle of the room to be used centrally.

Constructing the periodic table activities

Once you’ve got a full set of 20 electron structures you can get down to helping students construct a periodic table. There are a number of easy steps that you can follow to help them put a periodic table together. Also, if you don’t want students to do this as a full class, I have used small packs of element with electron structure cards that students can use in pairs.

If you are doing this as a large modelling activity, you can add on labels showing students the names of groups and periods. You’ll then have the opportunity to ask students loads of questions about the electron structure of atoms and what we can tell about elements based on where they have been placed in the periodic table.