Ten ways to use the element flashcards and the two-sided set in class. Timings assume a class of about thirty; most work equally well as a five-minute starter or a twenty-minute main activity. Where a game needs a particular set of cards, it says so.
Print two sets and shuffle them together. Players deal the pile face down and turn cards over in turn. When two consecutive cards show the same element, first to shout the name (not "snap") takes the pile. Use the "Hide names" option on one set so players have to match a symbol to a name rather than two identical cards.
Give each pupil one card from the first 36 elements (fewer for a smaller class) and clear a space. Without talking, they must arrange themselves into the correct rows and columns. Then call out changes: "everyone in group 1 sit down", "period 3 step forward", "noble gases to the back". Finish by asking the class where hydrogen was hardest to place, and why.
One pupil holds a card facing away from themselves so the class can see it. They ask yes or no questions: "Am I a metal?", "Am I in period 2?", "Am I a gas at room temperature?" Set a limit of ten questions. The two-sided set works well here because the questioner can check facts on the back after guessing.
Put labelled hoops or sheets of paper around the room: alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, noble gases, transition metals, non-metals. Each team gets a shuffled stack of cards. One runner at a time carries a card to the right hoop and returns. First team to place all cards correctly wins; a wrong placement costs the team a card back. Differentiate by giving lower-attaining teams a colour-coded set and higher-attaining teams the "Hide mass and family" version.
Deal five cards face down to each player. Turn one card over as the starter. Players take turns predicting whether their next card is heavier or lighter than the one showing, then reveal it. Correct predictions keep the card; wrong ones go back to the pack. Extend with "higher or lower melting point" using the facts on the two-sided backs.
Hold cards up at the front, symbol side only (print with "Hide names" ticked). The class calls out the name in chorus as fast as possible. Time a run of twenty and set a class record on the board. Repeat at the start of each lesson for a fortnight and watch the time fall.
Pupils draw a three by three grid and fill it with any nine element names from a range you set, say the first twenty. Draw cards from your set and read out only the symbol, or only the atomic number for a harder game. First full line wins. Ask the winner to say all nine symbols before you accept the win.
Give pairs a hand of cards from the first 20 elements plus a few common metals. They must lay down as many valid compounds as they can, naming each: two hydrogens and an oxygen, a sodium and a chlorine, a carbon and two oxygens. Score one point per correct compound and two for correctly stating whether the bonding is ionic or covalent. Cards can be reused between compounds.
Using the two-sided set, lay twelve cards face up, fact side showing. Read one fact aloud without the name. The group has to point to the card and say the element. Then flip the card to confirm. Rotate the reader. This turns the write-up facts into a memory game and works well as an end-of-topic plenary.
As pupils leave, each draws a card and must tell you one true thing about that element before going through the door: its group, its state, a use, anything defensible. Keep the cards nobody could answer and use them as tomorrow's starter. It takes no marking and tells you exactly which elements the class has not absorbed.