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Homeschool Den / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 2, 2014 · Last modified July 19, 2018
For those of you who know much about Montessori, you’ll recognize “The Black Strip.” This is an impressionistic activity that is meant to impress kids with the enormity of time on Earth. Our version was the purple ribbon strip — and it is only 21 feet (as my ribbon ream was 7 yards!). But it still shows how very little time we humans have been on Earth relatively speaking. I’m...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 1, 2014 · Last modified October 1, 2021
I have been really looking forward to our Earth Science unit this fall. It has taken a while to start in on all our activities, but now that we’ve started we are learning TONS and having lots of fun! To start of the unit, I felt like we really need to cover some basics about the Solar System again. We got a hands-on kit called the 4M Solar System Planetarium (affiliate link)...
Freebies / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 24, 2014 · Last modified July 20, 2018
Last year we did a unit on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you today. Our main activity for this portion of...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2014 · Last modified October 5, 2017
Today I’m going to share some free weather worksheets I made for the kids. This is for our study of the weather: the uneven heating of the Earth and how that affects our weather, fronts, and more! Yesterday, I shared some of the science experiments we did about air. We learned that air has weight, hot air rises and more. We are using a science textbook as the spine of...
Freebies / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 12, 2014 · Last modified September 3, 2020
Last week we had a lot of fun with our Weather Unit. The kids always love when we do science experiments and this part of our unit had a ton of demonstrations. Air has weight: This first activity is pretty self explanatory. We made sure that two balloons balanced. Then we blew up one balloon. It was clear immediately that the blown-up balloon was heavier. Clear or Cloudy Day: The...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 21, 2014 · Last modified September 6, 2018
Layers of the Atmosphere Packet (Now Updated!) Worksheets, Notebook Pages and Hands-On Activities! The Layers of the Atmosphere Packet has worksheets, notebook pages and various hands-on activities. It has well over 50 pages of materials. Here are some of the topics we cover: Earth System Science — the “spheres” including the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and magnetosphere the five layers of the atmosphere: Troposphere Stratosphere Mesosphere Thermosphere Exosphere The...
Freebies / Must Read / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 16, 2014 · Last modified September 3, 2020
What is meteorology? What tools do scientists use to study the weather? These are some of the basic questions we covered as we started off our weather unit! Below are the pages we went over on our first day… it covers a few basics and some background about the history of meteorology. I also rounded up some interesting weather facts and we read through those as well. Then we’ll be jumping...
Science / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2013 · Last modified July 19, 2018
Are you looking for hands-on Earth Science activities? This is a collection of some our favorite activities from our unit. Layers of the Earth Activities: I first saw this activity last year at The Learning Ark. It fit in perfectly with our Earth Science unit. There is also a similar activity using a hard-boiled egg in the book we are using for this unit, How the Earth Works by Michelle O’Brien-Palmer. One of...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info) / Nature / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 20, 2013 · Last modified March 3, 2016
This week ED and I read two books together: What Makes Day and Night (affiliate link) and Totally Amazing Night Animals. (affiliate links.) She really enjoyed both of them and we added in some activities to go with these books. After we read through What Makes Day and Night (affiliate link), we spent a lot of time in the dark bathroom! First I held the flashlight and shined it at her as she...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 25, 2013 · Last modified July 19, 2018
We read the second chapter in the geology book we have from Real Science 4 Kids. It talked about the different tools that geologists use — including topographic maps. I wasn’t sure the kids thoroughly understood how the maps worked and looked around for some resources to help them understand. I found a couple of wonderful activities! We actually started with this topographic map page from the USGS: I thought...
Freebies / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 19, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We finished up our close look at the three types of rocks and moved on to minerals. Last summer I bought a couple extra bags to pan for rocks and minerals when we were at an amusement park. I saved it just for this unit and the kids loved it!! It was a bit chilly out, so we had to use a big plastic bin in the bathroom rather than...
Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2013 · Last modified February 7, 2021
We brought the rock portion of our unit to a close with a look at metamorphic rocks. The kids had a tough time deciding which rock sample was marble and which was quartzite. We also did the melted-crayon version to show how metamorphic rocks form under heat and pressure. Okay, so really we just made rainbow crayons, but the kids *said* they understood how the rocks can change because of...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 5, 2013 · Last modified February 7, 2021
This past week, we spent a lot of time delving into the three different types of rocks. The first day we looked closely at some of the different igneous rocks. We started by reading about igneous rocks from a couple of books and filling in the boxes on our chart. (More about that free packet at this post about the Three Types of Rocks.) We then pulled out a rock...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 24, 2013 · Last modified July 27, 2021
A few days ago I shared the Rocks and Minerals Packet I made for ED who is in preschool. I wanted to spend more time on the three types of rocks–igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The kids were SO excited when they realized this activity was going to include semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, heath crunch bits and flaked coconut. (No we didn’t eat it all,...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
To read more about us CLICK HERE.
Click on the image to find out more about the units and packets we have available.
This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
Click the image to check out our packets on Earth Science, Rocks and Minerals, the Atmosphere, Weather, Energy and More!
Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
