What a neat idea this is! I believe original credit for this game should go to Karyn over at Teach Beside Me. There are a lot of cute and fun educational ideas in the subscriber section of her blog, totally worth a look!
When I first came across this idea, it was just a photo someone had shared on my Facebook with no instructions. So when we tried it out, I used my favorite printable of the periodic table we have been using. It involved coloring in every square and I think that’s great practice for the kids (& me too) so that’s what we did.
Essentially, all you need are four laminated copies of the periodic table, 2 file folders, a paper clip and dry erase markers. Just attach the two file folders together at the top with the paperclip, and secure two of the periodic tables there as well. The other two periodic tables just sit on the open part of the file folder.
There are official rules to this game, you know, like in regular Battleship. When playing with younger children, you can be a little looser with the rules. I just let the kids circle an equal number of ‘battleships’ of equal sizes. So to start, they each went with three battleships, one was 2 x 1, one was 2 x 3 and one was 2 x 2. If you’ve never played before, you mark where your own battleships are on the periodic table that’s laying on the open part of the file folder. Then you guess where the other person’s battleships are by calling out elements. Each time your guess ‘hits’ or ‘misses’ the other person’s battleships, you mark it on the other table on your side. Whoever locates and ‘sinks’ all the other people’s battleships, wins!
The periodic table is something that is usually introduced when kids are in 3rd grade or older. You can introduce it sooner with games like this! You can play the game the way it was intended, or have younger kids just pick a few elements and guess! There are lots of other fun games to play to engage younger kids in learning the periodic table, you just have to get creative – and have a look around!
Here’s a picture of the version we made!
Karyn’s original version is great! The printables are on her subscriber page and there are some details on her blog over here – http://teachbesideme.com/periodic-table-battleship/