Periodic Table of Elements

I am in a unique position because since I am the only middle school science teacher I teach science to the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students so I am able to complete my own vertical alignment. So far this second year of teaching has been dramatically different from the first year of teaching because I was the one laying the foundation for the students last year so this year I know what they should know, what they have learned and what they continue to struggle with. For example, I know my 8th grade students very well and I know that they are project based learners so for the past two days I have had them creating an advertisement where they had to request that a new element come and join their group (vertical columns in the periodic table, that have the same number of valence electrons). This activity was used in order to teach them about trends in the periodic table. We have gone over trends in the periodic table for several days now so this project was a culmination of learning. I created a template for the students to use so they could see what was expected of them and then I let them create their own advertisement. I will grade them this weekend and see how successful the project was, but from what I have seen thus far they seem to have gotten the idea. I will add pictures as soon as I have a chance.