** Edited to add on June 20, 2018 - You can read about how these plans worked here. **
Books and Resources:
An asterisk marks the ones we'll use over multiple days.
- *A Drop of Water by Walter Wick
- *Super Science Concoctions by Jill Frankel Hauser - This book is just full of information and lots of demonstrations and experiments you can do. Nearly all of them use regular kitchen items. There's a supply list at the front and for each activity. For each section, there are enough options you should be able to choose some without going to the store every week.
- *DK Eye Wonder: Rocks and Minerals by Caroline Bingham
- The Rock Factory: The Story about the Rock Cycle by Jacqui Bailey
- Young Scientists Kit 7: Minerals, available in this set at Rainbow Resource. We don't have the other kits (kit 7 was left over from our Noeo days), but they'd fit right in with this study.
- a crystal growing kit. I have a cheap one I picked up somewhere, but there are lots of options for nicer ones on Amazon. You can make your own rock candy at home as well.
- A Rock Is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston
- Geology Field Trip in a Bag
- *The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe by Ellen J. McHenry - I have the third edition, so page numbers might not match up.
- Photographic Card Deck of the Elements - I have this because I asked for it for Christmas one year long before we had homeschooling students who might use it. Your library might have a copy of the book it's based on.
- Periodic Table Connecting Color Tiles - These are the only things I bought this year for this course of study. They haven't come yet so we'll have to see what we think of them.
- EIN-O's Molecular Models kit
- *How to Think Like a Scientist: Answering Questions by the Scientific Method by Stephen P. Kramer
- The Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake by Linda Beech
How it works:
Many of the concepts introduced in these books are complicated so I've made the readings quite short on most days. Second Daughter will read on her own twice a week and narrate. I expect I will be helping her through many of the activities and readings to make sure she's understanding at a basic level. She doesn't have to learn it all! On another day, we'll do an experiment or play a game. Those are the Exploration Days.
The readings, even twice a week, only take 24 weeks, so there's time to drop a book or combine just a few readings to make the readings only once a week. Or you can slow down even more and play more games with your student without worrying about getting behind.
The Lessons:
Week 1
1 - A Drop of Water p 7-11. Narrate.
2 - A Drop of Water p 12-15. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Sticky, Creepy Water p 93-101. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 2
1 - A Drop of Water p 16-19. Narrate.
2 - A Drop of Water p 20-25. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Sticky, Creepy Water p 102-110. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 3
1 - A Drop of Water p 26-31. Narrate.
2 - A Drop of Water p 32-37. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Sticky, Creepy Water p 111-117. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 4
1 - Rocks and Minerals p 4-11. Narrate.
2 - The Rock Factory. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Young Scientists Kit 7: Minerals
Week 5
1 - Rocks and Minerals p 12-19. Narrate.
2 - Rocks and Minerals p 20-27. Narrate.
Exploration Day - crystal growing kit
Week 6
1 - Rocks and Minerals p 28-35. Narrate.
2 - Rocks and Minerals p 36-45. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Draw with rocks: charcoal and colored chalk.
Week 7
1 - A Rock Is Lively. Narrate.
2 - Catch up / review.
Exploration Day - Geology field trip in a bag.
Week 8
1 - The Elements Ch 1 p 1-2, Activity #1 and #2. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 1 p 3-4, Activity #3 and #4. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Symbol jars game (from The Elements)
Week 9
1 - The Elements Ch 1 p 5-6, Activity #5. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 1 p 7-10, Activity #6 and #7.
Exploration Day - Photographic card deck of the elements
Week 10
1 - The Elements Ch 2 p 11-12 (stop at the break). Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 2 p 12-15, Activity #1 and #2. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Periodic Table of Elements Battleship
Week 11
1 - The Elements Ch 2 p 16-20, Activity #3, #4, and #5.
2 - The Elements Ch 3 p 21-23. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Periodic table connecting color tiles
Week 12
1 - The Elements Ch 3 p 23-25, Activity #1 and #2. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 3 p 25-28, Activity #3 and #4. Narrate. (Mom will do the Activity #3 with you.)
Exploration Day - The Quick-and-Easy "Atom-izer" (from The Elements)
Week 13
1 - The Elements Ch 3 p 29-32, Activity #5, #6, and #7. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 4 p 33-36, Activity #1, #2, and #3. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Watch "Eureka! Episode 23 - Electrons"
Week 14
1 - The Elements Ch 4 p 37-38, Activity #4. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 4 p 39-40.
Exploration Day - Symbol jars game (from The Elements) with more elements
Week 15
1 - The Elements Ch 5 p 41-42, Activity #1 and #2 (stop after #2). Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 5 p 42-44, Activity #3. Narrate.
Exploration Day - EIN-O's Molecular Models kit
Week 16
1 - The Elements Ch 5 p 45-48, Activity #4, #5, and #6. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 6 p 49-50, Activity #1. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Lab Experiments (Teacher's section p 127 of The Elements): Disappearing trick using liquid bleach and Use iodine to test for starch (if we have citric acid, do edible chemical reaction, too).
Week 17
1 - The Elements Ch 6 p 51-53, Activity #2. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 6 p 54-56, Activity #3.
Exploration Day - Make an element card (from The Elements).
Week 18
1 - The Elements Ch 7 p 57-58. Narrate.
2 - The Elements Ch 7 p 59-61, Activity #1 and #2. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Make an element card (from The Elements).
Week 19
1 - The Elements Ch 7 p 62-64, Activity #4 and #5. Narrate. (We're doing something like #3 in Mountains and Volcanoes.)
2 - The Elements Ch 8 p 65-66 (stop before "Our Periodic Kingdom Story…"). Narrate.
Exploration Day - Make an element card (from The Elements).
Week 20
1 - The Elements Ch 8 p 66-70, Activity #1, #2, #3, and #4. Narrate.
2 - Catch up or review or play Battleship again.
Exploration Day - Play quiz games about the elements.
Week 21
1 - How to Think Like a Scientist Introduction p 3-6. Narrate.
2 - How to Think Like a Scientist How Do You Answer Questions p 7-16. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Strange-but-True Brews p 15-22. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 22
1 - How to Think Like a Scientist Using the Scientific Method p 17-29 (stop before "Scientists have a better way…"). Narrate.
2 - How to Think Like a Scientist Using the Scientific Method p 29-35. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Strange-but-True Brews p 23-33. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 23
1 - How to Think Like a Scientist What Do You Want to Know? p 36-39. Narrate.
2 - How to Think Like a Scientist What Do You Think? p 40-42. Narrate.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Just a Phase p 35-43. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 24
1 - The Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake.
2 - Design an experiment with Mom.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Just a Phase p 44-49. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 25
Experiment Week! Spend all your science time this week completing the experiment you planned last week.
Week 26
From this point on there are no more independent reading assignments.
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Presto Change-O p 51-57. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 27
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Presto Change-O p 58-67. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 28
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Go with the Flow p 69-77. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 29
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Go with the Flow p 78-84. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 30
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Go with the Flow p 85-91. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 29Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Go with the Flow p 78-84. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 30
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Go with the Flow p 85-91. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 31
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Goo Gobs of Fun p 119-127. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 32
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Goo Gobs of Fun p 128-133. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 33
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Goo Gobs of Fun p 134-141. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Week 34
Exploration Day - Super Science Concoctions: Goo Gobs of Fun p 142-155. Read together and narrate as we go along. Choose 1-2 activities to try for ourselves.
Weeks 35-36
Time for review, catch up, or running around outside.
