Category: Science Units

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Writing Secret Messages

I meant to talk about this a couple of days ago right after the lemon soda post, but life’s been full and fun and I didn’t get around to it.  This is another great activity to do with ingredients I’m sure you have in your kitchen. We did this a while ago, but if the weather’s hot, your kids might enjoy being spies for the afternoon! We used two different...

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Garden Science

Who knew that our garden flowers could be so fascinating?! We have hydrangeas and only just now learned why they have different colors. They are affected by the pH of the soil and by the amount of sunlight they receive. A blue hydrangea means that there is aluminum in the soil. The flowers turn blue in highly acidic soil. A pink hydrangea means that the pH of the soil is...

Summer Science Experiments – Tasty Lemon Soda 1

Summer Science Experiments – Tasty Lemon Soda

If you’re trying to find a way to keep the kids occupied this summer, why not turn to science?!! There are so many experiments you can do together with your kids. Or if you’re like me, you can hand them a book and they can do it on their own! LD (age 8) flipped through a science experiment book and was excited to make his own Lemon Soda! What to...

Rain Forest Plant Cards - Free Montessori 3-part Cards 5

Rain Forest Plants (Free Montessori 3-Part Cards)

On Tuesday I shared the biomes pin map that the kids and I used. We looked not only at where the desert, tundra and grassland regions were, but took note of the rain forest regions of the world.  Next I brought out the rain forest plant cards I had made several years ago.  Although our main goal was to look at a history of chocolate to go along with our...

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World Biomes Pin Map

Are you asking yourself, “What in the world is a biomes pin map?”  It’s a map that shows where the rain forests, deserts, grasslands, forest and tundra regions are located. A pin map is when you stick straight pins into the labels so kids can pinpoint where things are located. There you go, sounds fancy, but really it’s not! 🙂   Before we really delved into our study of rain...

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Ocean Unit Freebies

Since I talked so much about the ocean yesterday, I thought I would share some of the ocean related freebies I made for our ocean unit last fall.  I hope someone finds these helpful. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean).  This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last...

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Seashore Life

Last week we joined my folks, sister and brother-in-law and my two nieces and nephew on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Because they are homeschoolers as well, we took advantage of the pre-season prices and lack of crowds to enjoy time off together at the shore. We had such a great time — splashing in the waves, building sand castles, being buried in the sand, riding in the waves...

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station 0

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station

We got really interested in the future of space exploration when the space shuttle Discovery flew by our house back in April. I dedicated a couple of blog posts to it because the kids and I were so excited.  It was the end of an era for the Space Shuttle Program.   A new chapter in space exploration has been in the works for a number of years now.  Yesterday the first commercial spacecraft...

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Vertebrates-Invertebrates — and Frogs!

Last week we spent quite a bit of time outside enjoying the wildlife in our yard.  We are really lucky in that we see a wide variety of critters every day.  We spotted a little Northern Brown Snake, a small mouse that was in the strawberry garden (corralled briefly in an empty pot and then released) and a toad.   We also came across a large millipede (probably four inches or...

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Human Body Activities

I thought ED and DD (4 and6) would really enjoy doing some activities related to the human body again. As it turned out DD was quite sick so ED and I worked on this ourselves.  LD came in only at the end when we looked at the Bio Digital Human online. First I outlined her body. Then she built her skeletal system. We love the book, Look Into Your Body: All About...

Science Experiment Packet for Preschool-kindergarten 17

Science Experiment Packet

In honor of last weekend’s science celebration I wanted to put together something to inspire other budding scientists out there! I put together a packet of a dozen science experiments that my kids have loved. These are easy-to-prepare experiments and you should have most items on hand around the house.  The download is free! Download the Science Experiment Packet At this post you’ll find three more science experiments and another free...

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Spectacular Science (at least that’s what the kids think of this experiment!)

  We were so impressed and inspired by the science festival that the kids begged for science experiments during collection (our group time). Our experiment today was the Fireworks in Water experiment. I saw over on A Bit of This and A Bit of That back a half a year ago or so a twist on the experiment we’ve always done.  We took shaving cream, sprayed it on top of...

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USA Science and Engineering Festival

Beep, Beep! Class, it’s time for another field trip! We went to participate in the largest science celebration in the U.S.A.  The kids got to participate in hundreds of hands-on exhibits! We got up really early and drove down to the 2nd annual USA Science and Engineering Festival last Friday.  It was phenomenal!  The mission of the festival was  “to re-invigorate the interest of our nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and...

The Future of Space Exploration as the Space Shuttle Program Ends 2

The Future of Space Exploration as the Space Shuttle Program Ends

We learned some really amazing space missions are in development!  Last week we watched the Space Shuttle Discovery in awe as it flew close by our house towards its final destination. The Space Shuttle Program has truly come to an end. We went to see the space shuttle is in its new home at the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum, but we were surprised to learn just how much...