Periodic Pillow Case

I love getting a chance to combine an art project with another subject and I was fortunate enough to find this wonderful idea of making a periodic table pillow case to coincide with Casia learning about atoms, elements and molecules. I got the idea and instructions from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop; it even includes a template.

Ms. McHenry's pattern is four 8.5"x11" pieces of paper with a blank periodic table on it. You just print it out, trim the edges where they meet, line them up and tape them together. I also choose to cut Hydrogen from her top central location and move it back over above Lithium. Then I had Casia copy the atomic symbols and atomic numbers, first in pencil and then again with a black magic marker. Casia got to choose which of her six fabric markers colors would represent which group of elements. Seven markers would have been preferable, then she could have separated her alkali metals from her alkali earth metals, but I didn't feel like going through the added effort of getting another fabric marker just for this project.

I used a white pillow case (pre-washed) and placed the paper periodic table inside, centered and pinned. Then I used three plastic place mats under the periodic table but still inside the pillow, just in case the markers bled through. I then helped Casia by drawing the boxes in the colors she indicated because they weren't as easy to see through the pillow case as I had hoped. I then set Casia to work filling in all the boxes with the corresponding element information.

This is how it looked when she was finished, although we're not quite done yet. When todays work has dried, I will re-wash the pillow case and then Casia can trace over the radio active elements with my very cool, glow-in-the-dark fabric marker for a final finishing touch.