Learning About Science Collection {A WriteBonnieRose Review & Discount Code}

Do you ever find yourself wanting a simple, bite-sized approach to science at an elementary school level?

If so, Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive) by WriteBonnieRose could be for you! 

Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive) is comprised of seven black-and-white printable pdf booklets, each about twenty pages long. 

Each booklet focuses on a different science topic and presents material in a clear, concise style that includes informative paragraphs, traceable cursive words, and drawing and words written in bubble letters that colored in.  There are also basic activity pages and an answer key.

Topics of study include life science, earth science, and physical science:

• Kinds of Animals and How They Live, which features over thirty animals and looks specifically at vertebrates, invertebrates, and arthropods, as well as animal classification

• What’s Going On Inside Plants?,which presents the parts of a plant, different types of plants, and basic concepts of photosynthesis and transpiration.

• Life in the Ocean’s Hidden Zones, which presents the five zones of the ocean and includes examples of over 30 planst and animals that live in them

• Forecasting and Understanding the Weather, which discusses the elements of weather, basic meteorological concepts, and the tools used for assessing weather

• Discovering Rocks, Minerals, & Crystals, which covers the three classes of rocks, how they are created, and what their similarities are, and, then, presents more than 20 specific types of rock.

• Exploring the Earth’s Landforms, which presents 30 different types of landforms

• Energy and Its Many Forms, which introduces the five main types of energy and some of our sources of energy and is packed with vocabulary and concepts.

Also included in the download is a Discusion Help document, which contains Creation Science resources and lists websites related to the specific topics covered in the booklets.

A Low-Key Introduction or Review of Science Concepts

Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive) is written for a K-3 grade level, and,in keeping with that, it is decidedly elementary.  Concepts are introduced and discussed, but not gone into with depth and rigor.

For some, this may be a drawback.  For my family, it works.

Why?

We approach elementary science in an eclectic way - going to a library program here, reading a book there, enjoying a field trip, workshop, seminar, co-p class, or self-study over there... 

Experiential learning and following our own curiosity play largely into our elementary science learning approach - as does "cross-curricula" learning.  In fact, on any given day, you might find my family focused on a combination of faith, geography, literature, nature, math, and even art and music studies that blend science in without having it be a stand-alone subject. 

So, of course, outside of times when a particular science topic peaks our interest and causes us to dive into books, videos, or, even, traditional curriculum, that deals with it, we end up just learning science as we go.

Doing so work well for us in many ways, but, sometimes leaves us with temporary holes in science-specific vocabulary and concepts.  Materials like Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive) help identify such holes in a low-key, inviting format that does not take long to use and appeals to my children.

They also tie in nicely with the experiential learning we love so much.  For example, we went on a wild edibles walk which brought to mind pages of What's Going on Inside of Plants. 

My 11 year old daughter said:

The Learning About Science Collection is good.  I like the booklets you print out.  They have reading, writing, and coloring all combined together on every page. 

 

The material did not go very deep.  It gives the basics.  That was good because it helps you review some things and also gives you a little about a lot of things on a topic, so, if you really like something, you an research more in depth about it.

I think the booklets would be good for a big group class, because kids could color while other kids read aloud.  For individuals, it makes a good introductory or review study, depending on how much you know.

I want to do more of them.

My eight year old said:

It is fun. I like reading about the rocks, the minerals, the weather stuff... on my own. 

 

I also like coloring sometimes. 

The cursive is okay.  All it is is tracing the names of things.

I want Mom to print me all the booklets, so I can read them. I think they are good for review and introduction.

I really like the rocks one!  We went on a rock walk before and this booklet reminded me a lot of it.

Both of my children which tried this product found the material easy, but engaging, and I liked how the key words, concepts, etc. tied into prior learning we have done in a geography club, co-op classes, field trips, etc.

I also liked that I could simply pull up the pdf files, ask my children which they wanted to check out, print, and go.  The Learning About Science Collection offered us review (and might offer others introduction) to key elementary science topics while leaving plenty of room for summer fun, experiential learning, and studies fleshed out by videos, library books, and more.

I would not hesitate to recommend Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive) to families with children who like traditional schoolwork (reading, coloring, etc.) for introducing science topics or those who lean towards the eclectic and experiential but would like periodic simple review.  (Those that like meatier, in-depth science may only like this series as a light jumping -off point.)

Learn More

Find the reviews.

If you're curious about other levels of the Learning About Science Collection, head on over the the Homeschool Review Crew where you'll find all three levels reviewed.

Learning About Science Collection, Level 1

Learning About Science Collection, Level 2

Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Print)

Learning About Science Collection, Level 3 (Cursive)

If you love FREEBIES, WriteBonnieRose offers a ton of FREEBIES for geography, history, and more!

You can enjoy special savings of 50% off by using the coupon code REVIEWCREW50 to purchase Learning About Science Collection bundles through August 15.  That means you can get each level for only $6 per set.

Find WriteBonnieRose on social media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WriteBonnieRose/  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriteBonnieRose 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/writebonnierose/  

Read More

Enjoy a Fresh Water Habitat Exploration Day - A Pictorial Report and Free Printable Lesson Plan

Would you like to get outside to explore rivers, ponds, and streams with friends?  Then, you might appreciate the free printable Fresh Water Habitat lesson plan and pictorial report I am finally sharing today!

{Some links which follow are affiliate ones. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.}

I say "finally", because a blog reader recently brought to my attention the fact that I never finished sharing about the Habitat Explorers Co-op class I taught four years ago in May,  My apologies!  I thought I had done so and am happily doing so now at her request.  I hope doing so benefits you, too.

A Free Lesson Plan for You!

First things first: you can get a FREE pdf of the Freshwater Habitat Plan I made to print and adapt for your own family, co-op, or club's use.

Resources for Our Fresh Water Habitat Lesson

For our freshwater lesson in nature, we used:

Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places 

At home, we had plenty of other related books available for browsing and research.  Some of them included:

 

Near One Cattail

Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac

 

Rivers and Lakes (Nature Hide & Seek) 

Highlights from Our Fresh Water Habitat Meeting

 

Now, enjoy a peak at how the plan became reality:

We began the outing by gathering in a field, reintroducing ourselves, and reviewing prior learning.  Then, we got right into the day's focus: fresh water habitats by having a chat and playing a game.

I asked the children what they already know about fresh water habitats and what they hope to explore or come to know, and, then, explained that there are three main types of freshwater habitats:

1.  ponds and lakes
2. wetlands
3. streams and rivers 

I, then, asked three children to stand holding signs that said “pond and lakes, “wetlands”, and “streams and rivers” before grouping the rest of the children up so non-readers and readers could be together and giving each pair or group a strip of paper with a description on it.

The children then had to run to the child who held a sign for whatever water habitat they thought the descriptor matched with and hand their strip to that child. 

After that, children ran back to me for new strips.

Once all the strips had been matched by the children, I explained that some of the descriptors could match more than one type of freshwater habitat, but that, for the purpose of the game, each type of habitat should be described by ONLY four descriptors. I, then, had the children discuss ideas and make possible adjustments so that each type of fresh water habitat had four descriptors before, finally, revealing the “right” answers and discussing any observations and questions that came up.

After that, it was scavenger hunt time!  I gave small groups of children a checklist of items to spy - and photograph if they wished - as we explored the nature preserve.  Without delay, they were off and runnig!

We had barely made it onto the trail when children were calling out for photographs, "I found wet leaves!"

The hunt helped the children notice things around them as they joyfully trekked through the paths.

My heart never tires of seeing children walking together in the woods.

It also never tires of seeing them explore - as my youngest did as soon as we hit our first water crossing!

That crossing soon found many friends literally jumping into our day's focus - fresh water!

Everyone was having so much fun, we took a long break at this crossing.

Walking in water just drew the kids in!

Seriously, they were crossing over the water on the bridge, then through it down below, then back over it... enjoying themselves so much!

Finally, we moved on and continued along the trail to our lunch spot, where I read a book to those who were interested during our lunch break.

After lunch, it was time to find the leaf litter nets we'd placed in the moving water the week prior.

The older children enjoyed adventuring to collect the leaf litter bags.

Although we thought we had put them in good spots, we could not easily find them all at first.

But, keen eyes prevailed!

And the bags were recovered.

Meanwhile, one child found a dead fish, which ended up becoming a specimen for learning.

The leaf litter became the larger draw though.

The children were given tweezers, magnifying glasses, and more so they could pick through the litter to find creatures.

Of course, some crazy kids opted to take breaks to explore the water further and - eek - one or two of them also ended up with tiny leeches which we had to pull off!  (Oops!  That was an unexpected lesson!)

Other children enjoyed taking breaks to toss pebbles into a pond.

Even our youngest friends, though, did not take breaks long, but, rather, dug right into our explorations!

It was wonderful to see friends so engaged in discovery!

Better yet, one of our moms has a biology background and was able to help the children pinpoint the different species of critters they discovered.

They sure did discover a lot of them!

I cannot express how glad I am that this lesson engaged the children so much!  It was a bit beyond my background, but, together with other moms and the kids, it became an experience we all enjoyed and learned from!

Then, after our formal explorations ended, it was time for free play and fellowship.  Bubbles...

Hugs and love!

Stick play.

Private chats. (I still wonder what secrets were being shared here...)

And even a friend gifting my then recent First Holy Communicant with a saint book he relishes to this day.  (The gift was an unexpected surprise and just one example of how wonderful it is to share time with fellow Catholics!  I just love when learning, fellowship, and faith come together!)

As you can see from all the photos,the outing proved to be another absolutely ideal day of Habitat Explorers.  In fact, it remains among my fondest homeschool memories.

Our final day of the co-op - on meadows - does, too.  I will try to get the lesson plan for that outing up within a week or so!

In the meantime, feel free to browse all o f our other Habitat Explorers Co-op posts.

 

All the Plans!

Getting Started

Favorite Habitat Books

Intro Lesson

Woodland Habitat Outing

If you use all or parts of this lesson, I'd love to hear about it in a comment here or on the Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  I'd also be delighted if you'd take the time to share your own tried-and-true inspiration and resources, which may inspire our future outdoor experiences!  Thanks!

Read More