Homeschool Science: Year in Review and What’s Coming Up

When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2015 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year!  This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, printables and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below.

We managed to squeeze in various engineering (STEM) type activities here and there.

In January of 2015 we were in the middle of a big Earth Science Unit. We did a ton of hands-on activities with this unit.  We studied everything from plate movement and volcanoes to earthquakes (made our own earthquake shake table) and more. This was a phenomenal unit for us! 🙂

From there we went on to our Human Body Unit.  I decided that we should really do a unit on cells.  We learned about the main organelles of the cell and how proteins are made.  We talked about the difference between animal and plant cells and went on to talk about photosynthesis.

ED did her own unit on dinosaurs.

After our unit on cells, we went on to talk about how human body systems are organized.  Different specialized cells that make up the human body.  We talked about how those specialized cells form tissues.  Tissues form organs. And the human body systems are comprised of different

This fall, we did a unit on chemistry.  My older kids did a study of the periodic table.  Meanwhile my younger daughter (grade 2) used Real Science-4-Kids Chemistry pre-Level I (affiliate link) and did a lot of science experiments to go along with that.

We then moved on to our Biosphere Unit.  We started with a review of the basic characteristics about animals: the 5 vertebrate groups, common invertebrates (insects, arachnids, echinoderms, mollusks, etc.). I included some notebook pages about domesticated vs. wild animals and animal track activities and matching pages as well.  The kids really enjoyed this unit. 🙂

This spring we are doing a Biology Unit on to talk about the major biomes, animal habitats, ecosystems, food chains, food webs and the energy pyramid, animal relationships (symbiosis, mutualism, etc.).

Then we’ll move on to our Ocean Unit.

If there’s any time, we’ll do one of the Human Body Units that we didn’t get to last spring (circulatory system or muscular system).

I thought I’d try to put together a table sharing some of the links to the posts I shared for each unit:

Our Science Units Last Year (2015)

Engineering Activities	Engineering Activities for Kids 7 Fun STEM Activities for Kids Free Engineering Curriculum for Kids grades 3 to 8 — This was actually from 2014, but it still gets so many hits, I’ll share here anyway. 🙂
Earth Science Activities	50 Page Earth Science Packet – Pangaea, Plate Tectonics, Plate Movement Activities, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, hands-on activity ideas and more Earth’s 4 Main Systems (Ecospheres) – Biosphere, Atmosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere These are free notebook pages about Earth’s major systems.  This makes a good introduction to any major study of Earth Science, the atmosphere, biosphere (habitats, biomes etc.) or oceans. Earth Science: Plate Movement Hands-On Activities Earth’s Geologic Timeline – Earth’s history separated by eons in a way the kids could really understand Earth Science – Layers of the Earth Activity Learning about Latitude and Longitude, Using a Compass Earth Science: Plate Movement Hands-On Activities Free Earth Science Packet: Layers of the Atmosphere Learning about the Solar System – Including the hands-on kit the kids loved assembling and painting. Earth Science: Timeline of Earth Activity – A Montessori activity that is meant to impress kids with the enormity of time on Earth. Tissue Paper Volcano – Create a 3-D volcano image. The kids LOVED this craft Hands-On Volcano Activities: Gelatin Volcan0 & Paper Mache Volcano – We learned SO much from the gelatin volcano activity. I highly recommend doing this for understanding how lava flows as it does. How to Make a Shake Table: Earth Science Earthquake Activity – This post includes a quick video of how we made our shake table.  Earth Science: Layers of the Atmosphere Worksheets Earth Science Activities: Earthquakes, Plate Movement and Mountain Making
Cell Unit	Cell Unit: Cell Organelles and their Function, Animal vs. Plant Cells, Eurkaryotic vs. Prokaryotic Cells, and more – the kids learned about the major organelles of the cell and we did some really fun projects Photosynthesis Worksheets: We spent time learning about Plant Cells and talked about photosynthesis. These notebook pages are free.
Dinosaurs	Dinosaur Lapbook: ED did a unit on dinosaurs last spring and made her own Dinosaur Lapbook. I expanded the packet to include activities for younger kids too because I know my kids all loved dinosaurs around the age of 3 or 4. 🙂 You can check out the Dinosaur Packet here.
Human Body Systems	After our unit on cells, we talked about the Cells of the human body as well as tissues, organs and the major body systems Next we did a unit on the Skeletal System – This time around we talked not only about the different bones of the body, but also their function, how they grow and repair themselves, how the skeletal system is divided (axial, appendicular), joints and more. We were going to do units on the muscular system and circulatory systems as well, but ran out of time at the end of the year!! 🙂  So that’s (hopefully) on the plate for this spring… You might want to check out our Digestive System Unit that we did a couple of years ago:
Chemistry Unit	My older kids did a study of the periodic table: Chemistry Unit: Periodic Table  Bohr Diagram Worksheets — Free Notebook Pages While my younger daughter used Real Science-4-Kids Chemistry pre-Level I (affiliate link) and did a lot of science experiments to go along with that. Chemistry Experiments for Kids (Grade 2)  – Matter is Neither Created Nor Destroyed — Acids and Bases – Free Chemistry Experiment Printable Packet Chemistry Experiments for Kids (Grade 2)  – Mixtures, Chromatography, DNA Kit – Free Chemistry Experiment Printable Packet We all enjoyed the IMAX film,  Molecules to the Max which is out on DVD Here are some of our other chemistry posts (from when we studied chemistry a couple of years ago): Explosion of Colors in Milk Experiment and Other Chemistry Fun! Chemistry Unit: The Size of Atoms – States of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas — Learning Activities Chemistry: Molecule Movement Experiment and Chemistry Review Worksheet These notebook pages are free. Science Experiments: Water Molecule Attraction Building Molecules Chemistry Activity This also has some free notebook pages about building molecules:
Biosphere Unit	Animal Unit: Characteristics of the Animal Groups – 5 Vertebrate Groups, Common Invertebrates, Domesticated vs. Wild Animals, Animal Tracks This spring we are going on to study the Biosphere: Biomes, Animal Habitats, Ecosystems, Food chains, food webs and the energy pyramid, animal relationships (symbiosis, mutualism, etc.) And then we will move on to study the ocean:

This is the checklist of the various units I hope we cover K-8 or so. You’ll find it at this post here: Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. If you do click over, thanks for supporting our blog!

I’m sure I’ve left things out, but I really need to get going. So, that’s about it for today! See you again soon here or Homeschool Den Facebook page. Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter! ~Liesl