Tuesday, April 6, 2010

5th - Riddles of the Periodic Table

Confession time...I love musicals. And who does them better than Gilbert & Sullivan. Combine the music of "I am the very model of a modern major general" with the period table and you've got a makings of a hit.

Check out the links on the right for the introduction to this lesson.

The fifth graders then tackled some riddles to find their way around the periodic table and familiarize themselves with the information therein.

Ask your student what two particles are in an atom's nucleus (protons & neutrons).

There was lots of "on-task" chatter (my favorite kind) and the students discovered the chemical symbols for various items, elements named for famous scientists, etc.

They asked excellent questions and it was one of those days when I wished I had the luxury of spending a day just answering questions and talking about interesting stuff.

Ask them if they remember the symbol for Silver (Ag - "Almost Gold).
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousAugust 8, 2010 at 10:20 AM

    Hi Tracy,

    Since you like musicals, have you heard Tom Lehrer's song, "The Elements"? http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html

    My son will be entering 5th grade at LA, and it's exciting to hear that they're be learning about the periodic table...I'll be playing it for him!

    Would you happen to know of any links on the school website with information about Science Camp? I have the dates marked on my calendar as 9/14-9/17, which feels so soon!

    Regards,
    Janette Canare
    (mom of Andrew Budzinski)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)