The Periodic Table Welcome to atomic preschool!
Atoms on the Periodic Table are just like preschoolers. Tell your team something you remember about going to preschool.
A School Picture: The Periodic Table The Periodic Table is like a group picture of all the kids at a preschool. Each class at the preschool is one vertical column. More on this later!
Why do we learn about Atomic Preschool? Atomic Preschool helps us learn about the number of electrons that each atom has, and how many it wants to have. Atomic preschool is just an example! Remember that we are REALLY talking about ATOMS and ELECTRONS!
Orbitals Atoms keep their electrons in shells or orbitals. The first orbital (closest to the nucleus) only holds 2 electrons.
Baby Atoms: The first orbital is like a baby with two hands. Cute little atom babies love their binkies. The baby atoms like to have 2 binkies (electrons): one for each hand!
Happy Baby Atoms At first, atom babies are happy as long as they have both of their binkies (electrons).
Unhappy Baby Atoms When baby atoms only have one binky (electron), they get MAD!
Who are the baby atoms on the Periodic Table? Helium and hydrogen are the only baby atoms. See their binkies (electrons)?
Bigger Atoms Baby atoms grow up and get bigger. They still have their two old binkies (electrons), but now they like something else better….
What is the most important thing to a preschooler? You’re right! TOYS!
The Other Orbitals After the first orbital, each orbital holds 8 electrons. We will pretend they are toys for our preschool example!
Where do preschoolers put their toys? In their cubbies (orbitals)!
Growing Up: Toddlers! Once atom preschoolers have two binkies (electrons), they grow up and start collecting toys in their cubbies.
How many toys? Toddler atoms have a cubby that holds 8 toys.They like to have all of the cubby holes filled, and no extras!!
How can you tell how many binkies + toys (electrons) each atom has? Look at each element’s square on the Periodic Table. Atoms start by having the same number of electrons as protons. How do we know the number of protons?
How many binkies + toys? That’s right! We look at the atomic number! Example: lithium’s atomic number is 3. This tells us that lithium has 3 protons, and it also starts with 3 electrons.
What happens when toddler atoms have more or less than 8 toys? Toddler atoms get MAD when they don’t have exactly 8 toys (electrons) in their cubby!
What happens next? What does a toddler atom do when he doesn’t have quite enough toys (electrons) in his cubby? That’s right! He GRABS some from another atom!
What if a toddler atom has too many toys in her cubby? That’s right! She THROWS one (or more) at another toddler atom!
Important! Our example only works for the first three rows (or periods) on the Periodic Table. When you go to college you will learn about the others!
Atomic Preschool Facts Hydrogen and helium are the only atoms that want 2 binkies (electrons). All of the other atoms already have 2 binkies.Now they want 8 electrons for each of their cubbies. When atoms fill up a cubby, they get to start a new one. Atoms always do the EASIEST thing to get happy!
Orbitals and Cubbies The outermost orbital is the one that determines if an atom is happy or sad. It doesn’t matter if the other orbitals are full or not.
Example: Oxygen How many electrons does oxygen have? Is oxygen happy or sad? How many electrons does oxygen need to get happy? What is the easiest way for oxygen to get happy?
The Atomic Classes All of the atoms are in classes called “Groups.” The groups are arranged VERTICALLY on the Periodic Table. Each group has a name.
Happy or Sad? All of the atoms in each vertical group are sad for the same reason: they have the same number of electrons that they want to grab or throw. Some groups are REALLY mad, and some are just a little sad.
The Happy Group Only one group on the Periodic Table is happy. All the atoms in this group have just the right number of electrons. Can you tell which group it is?
Try it yourself! Let’s take a look at the Periodic Table of the Elements so we can figure out which atoms are happy or sad, and why!