Category: Science Units

12

Earth Science: Layers of the Earth Hands-On Activity

Last week, I mentioned that we learned a bit about the Solar System in general.  This week we’ve been looking more closely at Earth’s long history.  We’ve been going over the four major eons and looking more closely at what happened in each (Hadean Eon, Archean Eon, Proterozoic Eon, Phanerozoic Eon). At first 4.6-4 billion years ago, the Earth would have been molten. Then as the Earth cooled it went from liquid...

0

States of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas — Learning Activities

Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...

10

Earth Science: Timeline of Earth Activity

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...

Solar System Kit 4

Learning about the Solar System (Hands-On Kit the Kids Loved)

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)...

8

Free Water and Water Cycle Resources

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...

2

Homeschool Planning and Schedules: From the Big Picture down to the Daily Schedule

A week or so ago,  a reader asked me if I had any other tips about homeschool planning. She had read the posts I had put together on short term and long term goals and planning, but wondered if I had any other thoughts.   She wondered how I make sure we keep tabs on the resources and books and planning things out in general. I spent a lot of the...

Simple Machines Worksheets 0

Simple Machine Packet – About 30 Pages

Last year, the kids were 5, 8 and 10. We all did this simple machines unit together. It was perfect for my younger two — quite easy for my oldest, but from here we’re going to go on to more complicated topics… inventions and electricity (see our STEM Electricity and Circuits Packet here) which are more suited to my older two.  It works best for our family to do these...

10

Science Activities for Ages 4-6 or So

In writing my series for new homeschoolers about choosing a science curriculum, I came upon this post from last year.  Since many people are planning or just starting the new year, I thought it was the perfect time to share this again. We have always done a lot of hands-on science. In the early years, I just want the kids to think science is cool!!  We’ve done a lot of science...

8

Homeschool Science Curriculum Options

  We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start. Real Science 4 Kids NOEO Science R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum Elementary...

0

Egg-tivity: Seatbelt Safety to Protect an Egg

While LD was away at summer camp, the girls did a few egg-tivities of their own. First in preparation for the activity, they made their own pinewood derby cars (just kits that we got from Michaels).   Once the paint was dry and the wheels were on, I told them they had a challenge… to create a seatbelt safety system to protect an egg as the car traveled down our...

0

Water Unit: Free Worksheets on Water and Water Usage

As I mentioned yesterday, we started a new unit on water (jumping off onto a new tangent for our weather unit).  I made a couple of pages for the kids’ science notebooks. They go along with some of the resources I shared yesterday. I had the kids try to brainstorm as many uses for water as they could and then had them study a printout of the USGA water use poster...

2

Free Water and Water Cycle Resources

A couple of weeks ago, we started on a new unit. One that focuses 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...

Don’t Miss Tonight’s Meteor Showers! (Fri. 5/23) 2

Don’t Miss Tonight’s Meteor Showers! (Fri. 5/23)

  Our family loves star gazing and I always try to find out when the next meteor showers pass by. Tonight there is a brand new meteor shower that may light up the night sky.  They are called the Camelopardalids. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how many shooting stars we’ll see, but they could shower down at a rate of 1-per minute.  If the showers happen they should be visible in...

1

Animals and Their Groups Sorting Cards (ages 5-8)

A couple of months ago, I did an animal unit with my youngest.  We went over the characteristics of living and non-living things. Then we talked about vertebrates and invertebrates and finally we went over the five vertebrate groups in quite some detail. I shared the free Montessori cards I made for that part of our unit: the Montessori Vertebrate-Invertebrate cards and the sheets I made on Animals and their Characteristics....