Seven Ways to Revise the Periodic Table
Six matching games, easiest first. Each one asks a different question about the same
chemistry: what a symbol stands for, what an element is used for, where it is dug out of
the ground, what an everyday substance is really called, what is inside a formula, and what
a reaction makes. Play them in order or drop into the one that matches the topic you are
teaching this week.
6Games
118Elements
232Question cards
Teachers
Project a game on the board and play it as a class, or hand the link to students for
revision. Every game deals six fresh pairs each round and keeps going until the whole
list has been covered, so it never runs out mid-lesson.
Students
Work through them on your own, on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing is timed and
nothing is scored — turn over a card, read the clue, and see whether you can place it.
Game 1
Beginner
Element Symbols
118 elements
The whole periodic table, one symbol at a time. Choose a symbol and find the element it stands for — the game the rest of this series assumes you have played.
H · He · Li · Be · B · C · N · O · F · Ne
Open Full Page
Game 2
Beginner
What Is It Used For?
60 elements
The element is given — symbol, name and number. The question is what we actually do with it, from copper wiring to the americium in a smoke detector.
“Wiring and water pipes” → Cu
Open Full Page
Game 3
Elementary
Where Does It Come From?
36 elements
Ties the table back to the ground it comes out of: the ore it is mined as, the brine it is pumped from, or the air it is chilled out of.
“Mined as bauxite” → Al
Open Full Page
Game 4
Elementary
Everyday Names & Formulas
40 substances
The bridge students actually need: the thing in the cupboard, and what a chemist calls it. Baking soda, bleach, rust, quicklime, laughing gas.
“Baking soda, raises cakes” → NaHCO₃
Open Full Page
Game 5
Intermediate
What Is Inside It?
38 formulas
Composition in the strictest sense — and the moment brackets stop being decoration. Ca(OH)₂ is one calcium, two oxygen and two hydrogen.
“1 calcium · 2 oxygen · 2 hydrogen” → Ca(OH)₂
Open Full Page
Game 6
Upper intermediate
What Does It Make?
24 reactions
Word equations, read left to right. What goes in is on the card; what comes out is the answer — burning, rusting, neutralising, respiring and photosynthesising.
“iron + oxygen →” → Fe₂O₃
Open Full Page