Homeschool Science 2016 Year in Review – And What’s Coming Up Next
When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2016 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year! This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, science worksheets and printables, and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below.
Last year as we moved into the new year (in January to May 2016), we were focused on the Earth systems again. This time around we were focused on the Biosphere and Hydrosphere. (The previous year, we really focused on Earth Science.) We first did a unit on animals — focusing on classification of vertebrates and invertebrates, the characteristics of these different animals. We talked about the difference between domesticated and wild animals and then talked about wild animals. ED really enjoyed that unit and it was good review for my older two. Then we did a more in-depth units on Biology and the Biosphere and on the Ocean.
This semester (August to December 2016), our units were in Chemistry and STEM. We did units on the States of Matter, the Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter (which was a middle school unit), and Electricity and Circuits (which had nearly a dozen hands-on activities!). We have just started into a study of the human body systems again… and will continue that into the new year.
So first our science units January to May 2016:
Last year as we moved into the new year (in January), we focused primarily on the Biosphere (biomes, ecosystems, habitats, feeding relationships, etc.).First, though, we first did a unit on animals — focusing on classification of vertebrates and invertebrates, the characteristics of these different animals. We talked about the difference between domesticated and wild animals and then talked about animals tracks. was especially fun because it was winter and we were able to find a lot of different animal tracks in the snow! ED really enjoyed that unit and it was good review for my older two.
You can find out more about our animal unit here: |
Earth’s Four SystemsBefore we launched into a study of the biosphere, we talked about Earth’s 4 Systems: Atmosphere, Geosphere (Earth Science Unit), Biosphere, Hydrosphere These are the free notebook pages going over the 4 major Earth systems:
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Biology Unit – BiosphereBiomes, Ecosystems, Habitats, Feeding Relationships and More
You can find out more about our Biology Unit (the Biosphere) here. |
Ocean Unit – The HydrosphereThis was such a fun unit! I spent nearly 6 months putting this curriculum together for the kids. We then spent about six or seven weeks on this unit.. and we all learned so much!! I kept adding in more and more… and the packet wound up being close to 80 pages in the end!! We did a ton of hands-on activities. I think the highlights were learning about the tides–not just the daily tides but the monthly spring and neap tides as well) and the salinity experiments. We talked a lot about some of the history of ocean navigation and the kids *really* had fun with the ocean depth activity for finding the features of the ocean floor. (DD asked me to set up the blanket to do this activity again recently!!)
Marine Habitats:
Ocean Tides and Currents (and activity ideas): |
Review:By the time we finished our Ocean Unit, we were getting ready for a long 6-week trip out West. We spent time reviewing previous units. Simple MachinesMy youngest was about 4 the last time we had covered Simple Machines, so I wanted to go over the 6 types of simple machines with her (She was in Grade 2 last year): This spring I also started putting together a series of videos. This Simple Machines was one of our one minute videos. 🙂 Cell UnitWe also spent some time going over the organelles of the cells (that was from our Cell Unit last year). ED and I spent several days reading April Terrazas’s book Cellular Biology: Organelles, Structure, Function (affiliate link) again. It is very effective for learning (and reviewing!!) the functions of the organelles (though it might feel too simplistic if you have older kids). I personally think highly of the book and even had DD and LD read it daily for several days. 🙂 You can find out more about last year’s cell unit here. This year we didn’t go into detail about how proteins form and some of the things we went over last year. I’ll need to go over that next year again. 🙂 |
Science Topics: Early ElementaryOne of my goals this year (2016) was to put together a list of science topics we covered when the kids were roughly ages 4 to 6. I put together a video as well as a checklist with links to the various science topics we covered in those early elementary years!
Free Early Elementary Science Checklist: |
In May, we left on a long trip out West. I made a Travel Log book that the kids used throughout our trip. You’ll find this FREE 40 page packet here: Road Trip! Travel Log for Kids
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Over the summer, I often spend times planning out our units. I decided to focus on chemistry again this fall starting with a unit that I knew ED needed to cover again. Then we moved into more complicated material for my middle-schoolers.
These were the science units we did this fall:
This fall (2016), I wanted to focus on Chemistry again. We had done a unit on the Periodic Table a year ago (last fall 2015) and I knew that I wanted to go over some topics we skimmed over.We started with a unit on the States of Matter. This was a fun unit for everyone because we did a number of hands-on activities:
We focused quite a bit of time on the changing states of matter and had a lot of fun learning about sublimation and deposition! |
Chemistry (Middle School):We then dove deeply into the Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter. Just as scientists classify the living world, they also divide the non-living world into categories. We looked closely at matter: pure substances and mixtures.
You can find out more about our Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter Unit here: ——————————————————————————- Other Chemistry Posts: Last Year (Fall 2015) My older kids did a study of the periodic table:
While my younger daughter (She was in 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.
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Electricity and Circuits Unit We were all *really* excited to dive into this unit because we had so many hands-on activities planned!
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Next, it was time to start studying the Human Body again! As many of you know, we have a couple of units we’ve been meaning to get to for more than a year now… the Muscular System and the Circulatory System. This is what we’ll delve into in January 2017.Update, Jan. 8th: Last week we reviewed the organelles of the cell again and added a half-dozen new review pages to our Study of Cells Packet. Now, we’re just about ready to dive into our circulatory system unit!
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This fall, I wanted to put together a new series to break down what we’ve covered by grades. I worked hard to get the first two resources up and finished. Next up (in the spring 2018) will be the Grades 3-4 and Grades 6-8 Resource Packets.
There are free to download and cover not only science, but the other subjects as well. 🙂
Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Kindergarten – Grade 1 – a FREE 50+ page resource guide
Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum: Grades 2-3 – a FREE 30+ page resource guide
You might enjoy last year’s Science Year in Review post:
Homeschool Science: 2015 Year in Review and What’s Coming Up
This post shares links to a lot of our Earth Science activities, our Cell Unit, etc.
You might be interested in browsing through all of our homeschool Science Units here.
This is the checklist of the various units we hope we cover K-8 or so. You’ll find it at this post here: Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School
And you might also be interested in this post about Planning for a New Homeschool Year.
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
Wow Liesl what a fabulous year filled with science fun!!
Thanks Kylie! The kids have now fallen in love with David Attenborough (from all the documentaries we watched during our biology and ocean units)!! Right behind him is Jim Weiss’s voice (who narrates the Story of the World CDs and assorted other history things we listen to in the car)!! It’s been a good combination of projects/experiments/activities, documentaries and diving into more complicated material. 🙂