If you’re an amazing science teacher looking for a periodic table crossword puzzle to add to your lesson plan, look no further. This post has plenty of ideas to make your own, as well as puzzles already made by teachers like yourself. For those who are ready to get started, head on over to our crossword puzzle maker. If you need some ideas or want to know how a periodic table crossword puzzle can help your students, stick around.

 

Why Use a Periodic Table Crossword

Many students learn the periodic table of elements through standard memorization. This works for some students, but a crossword provides more active thinking and engagement overall. Studies have shown kids learn better through crossword puzzles as a result. Student engagement is vital, especially for students who need help developing their study skills.

Plus, your periodic table crossword can be as broad or narrow as your students need. You can make a crossword for your students that reinforces their knowledge of the whole table or even just one element of the table like in the puzzle below. This is the first of many ways you can organize your periodic table crossword.

 

Ways to Organize Your Periodic Table Crossword

When deciding which clues to give in your periodic table crossword, start with your lesson plan. What parts of the table or of each element do your students need to know? This can include pieces like the:

• Element symbol
• Common name
• Atomic number
• Atomic weight
• Group or family
• Period

Once you decide what your students need to learn, go ahead and put those words into our crossword puzzle maker. From there, you can decide what clues you want to give to lead them to these answers. An introductory periodic table crossword may start with the common name of elements as the answers and the element symbol or the atomic number as the clue. This teacher mixed and matched many parts of the periodic table to ensure total comprehension from students.

To help students understand how each property appears, works, or reacts, consider giving these kinds of clues to a common name answer. For example, the clue to Lithium could be, “The lightest solid element.” This teacher did just that in the periodic table crossword below.

If your students need to learn the periodic table of elements as a whole, consider making a puzzle like this teacher’s. As you can see, questions pertain to the entire table by referencing the names of horizontal and vertical rows, groups, and more.

 

There are many wonderful educators like yourself adding a periodic table crossword puzzle to their lesson plan. It adds a fun and engaging study method to your students’ learning experience. We encourage you to make your own puzzle now with our easy-to-use crossword puzzle maker, which will allow you to add any and every word you need. If you’re looking for a different kind of puzzle, check out our word search maker, too.

 

Have you found that a crossword puzzle helps your students learn the periodic table of elements more effectively than other methods? Let us know! We’d love to see the puzzles that worked for your class.