High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A period 4 element is one of the chemical elements in the fourth row (or period) of the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The fourth period contains 18 elements, beginning with potassium and ending with krypton. As a rule, period 4 elements fill their 4s shells first, then their 3d and 4p shells, in that order, however there are exceptions, such as chromium.