Teaching the Periodic table of elements through Poetry and Music

Can you think of a better way to  focus  on the Periodic table of elements than through Poetry and Music?  Let me explain what I mean:

- Make your students go to this link  where they will find Mary Soon Lee's original Periodic Table, which will enable them to review the elements  by enjoying Kaiku poems. How? Just by clicking over an element to read the Haiku.

I suggest that you should exploit Lee's idea as follows: 

You can  start by explaining that a Haiku is a Japanese poem consisting of three lines that do not rhyme. You should add that traditional Haikus follow this structure: the first line is 5 syllables. The second line is 7 syllables. The third line is 5 syllables. That's why they are called the 5-7-5 structure.

Then, you can proceed to ask students to work in pairs, choose one  element, read and understand the meaning of the Haiku and create a new Haiku of their own for the chosen element. Encourage the use of on-line dictionaries while students are reading the Haikus and creating their own ones. 

Finally, students would share their elements and the Haikus they have created with their peers. 


- Students will probably have difficulties to pronounce the names of the elements properly . How can you help them? Make them  listen to the Periodic Table song AsapScience offers us on its YouTube channel.




You can find the lyrics here. (No fill in the gaps this time because students will have to make a huge effort  to follow the lines, so just ask them to sing along after they have listened to it twice.)

Please, share your views on the activities above with me. I will be eager to know if they are  useful for you.