10 Good Reads

Looking for great science reads for students? Check out these 10 suggestions. 

1. Magic Tree House Research Guide: Rain Forests by Mary Pope Osborne and Will Osborne 

The Magic Tree House Research Guide books are wonderful nonfiction texts that correlate with the topics discussed in the Magic Tree House series. Jack and Annie track down facts from their journeys to better help them understand the world around them. Students will love researching with these texts! 

2. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

In this text, the authors explore the many amazing things animals can do with their ears, eyes, mouths, noses, feet, and tails. This text has earned a Caldecott Honor for the beautiful illustrations that students will love!  

3. Science Matter! Volume 1- Food, Teeth, and Eating by Dr. Brian Knapp

Science Matters! is a set of texts published by scholastic that provides beneficial information to students about many topics. This particular texts includes colorful photographs and interesting diagrams to help present information to students about food, teeth, and eating. 

4. The Fossil Girl: Mary Anning's Dinosaur Discovery by Catherine Brighton 

In this text, the author illustrates the story of how Mary Anning discovered the complete fossil of an Ichthyosaurus. While this text contains facts about Mary Anning's findings, it is told as a narrative that students would enjoy reading/listening to. 

5. Levers by Anne Weisbacher

This nonfiction texts helps students understand levers. It includes wonderful information about the parts of levers, how to use levers, first-class/second-class/third-class levers, and words to know. Along with this text about levers, the author also has other books in the series addressing other simple machines such as: inclined planes, pulleys, screws, wedges, wheels and axles. This series would be great to include when teaching simple machines!

6. Sound and Music by Jon Richards

This text provides information about sound including the scientific aspect of how sound occurs. The text offers many engaging science experiments that allow children to more deeply explore the topic. The content includes the power of sound, bouncing sound, collecting sounds, hearing sounds, stereo sounds, soundproofing, and more!

7. Our Solar System by Peter Wilks and David West

This colorful text shares information about the solar system through a question/answer structure. The large illustrations, font size, and diagrams will entice students to continue reading! Questions are presented that students typically ask, along with answers in terms students can understand.

8. How Weather Works by Christiane Dorion and Beverley Young

This text provides a hands-on guide to our changing climate. The wonderful book includes amazing pop-ups, wheels to turn, flaps to lift, and tabs to pull all to explore the Earth. Students will love finding out information about the weather using this brilliant text! 

9. What If You Had Animal Teeth!? by Sandra Markle and illustrated by Howard McWilliam 
This hilarious text shares information about animal teeth and proceeds to illustrate how we would look in those teeth! Students will love looking at the illustrations and laughing along as they learn about different animal teeth. 





10. Me and My Amazing Body by Joan Sweeney and illustrated by Annette Cable 
In this text, students can discover facts about their body from their head to their toes. It provides great illustrations and diagrams of the anatomy along with bold anatomy terms. Also consider checking out her other texts: Me on the Map, Me and My Place in Space, and Me and My Family Tree. 

10 Interactive Science Lessons for Prek-4

The best way for children to learn about the surrounding world (especially science) is to explore it through hands-on, interactive lessons! Below you'll find ten interactive science activities/lessons for prek through fourth grade. The lessons are categorized under a grade level, but each could be adapted to fit other grades. After the description of each lesson, you will find the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) connection and a link to a website to learn more about the activity/lesson. Enjoy! 

Kindergarten

1. Creating a Garden 

With a few simple materials, you can create a "garden view box" for children to explore the joy of observing seeds grow into plants. All it takes is a sturdy cardboard shoebox, a tray to hold run-off water, scissors, sheet of strong, clear plastic acetate, duct tape, potting soil, sand, and several types of seeds. Children will love watching the growth! Children will add garden vocabulary to their schema, learn about taking care of living things, learn about patience, work with classification of plants, and learn about observing. Click on this link Creating a Garden to learn more!

NGSS Connection: K-LS-1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals need to survive. 

Anchor chart example

2. Learning about the Seasons
Children typically talk about seasons in kindergarten. It can be such a fun topic to teach with the right attitude and lesson! One excellent way to talk about seasons is reading a book and creating an anchor chart with your students. This lesson starts by reading two books: A Tree For All Seasons and Watching the Seasons. During the read aloud, you can point out pictures and key words. After reading both texts, create an anchor chart to show what you have discovered so far. Next, explore the outdoors and have children create their own book. Click on this link Learning about the Seasons to learn more!
NGSS Connection: K-ESS2-1 Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time. 

First Grade

1. Making Music with Water

Many of us have seen on television someone making music with glasses that are filled with water. Have you ever tried it though? This activity allows children to explore with the sound made from materials (glasses) vibrating. All you need is some drinking glasses (5 or more), water, and a wooden stick (such as a pencil). Fill the glasses up with different amounts of water and explore with the sounds produced by gently hitting the glasses. Children learn about the different tones made and how the amount of water in the glass affects the sound. Learn more from this link Making Music! 

NGSS Connection: 1-PS4-1 Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. 

2. Phases of the Moon

Four stages of the Moon using Oreos 

This lesson about the phases of the Moon comes right from NASA! Using Oreo cookies, children can make the four major phases of the Moon. All it requires is scraping off the creme filling to make each phase. What a fantastic and memorable way for children to learn about the phases of the Moon (and not just on a boring worksheet). Children could always document what they created on a recording sheet, but only after creating the Moon phase with an Oreo. Learn more from this link Make Oreo Moon Phases. 

NGSS connection: 1-ESS1-1 Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted. 

Second Grade

1, States of Matter: Fizz Ball

Fizz balls

This hands-on activity is a great way to explore the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. After explaining the definition of solids, liquids, and gasses, have children predict what will happen when a fizz ball makes contact with water. Drop a fizz ball into hot water and watch the solid rapidly fizz (much like gas going up in the air). Children can document their predictions and the results. Children will love watching the fizz ball! To learn more click on this link States of Matter Lesson: Fizz Ball!

NGSS connection: 2-PS1-1 Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties. 

2. Butterfly Life Cycle

The life cycle of a butterfly can be a fascinating topic for children to explore! One hands-on activity I have done with children involves creating a representation of the life cycle using paper plates and various sizes of dry pasta. All you need are paper plates, markers, dry pasta (spirals, orzo, small shells, and bowtow), glue, and crayons. Allowing children to create the life cycle using dry pasta seems to really stick in their minds. Remember to have children label each stage! Check out this link to learn more Butterfly Life Cycle. 

NGSS connection: 2-LS4-1 Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. 

Third Grade

1. Fun with Fossils

Exploring fossils can always be exciting for children. Another awesome activity you can do with your children is make a fossil from glue! I would recommend first searching through real fossils and have children document the different patterns they see. They can use the information they have found to create their very own fossil. To create your own fossil you will need white glue, modeling clay, and seashells (or other naturally hard objects such as tree branches). To learn how to create your own fossil check out this link How to make your own fossil! 

NGSS connection: 3-LS4-1 Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago. 

2. Engineering Challenge: Building a Free Standing Tower
Engineering projects allow children to use their creativity while exploring math and science. For this activity all you will need is marshmallows and toothpicks. Students will be challenged to build a tower using only those two materials. To increase the complexity, add constraints to the design challenge such as: must be free standing, must stand without support for ten seconds, and must be at least four inches tall. Students will love the challenge and you will be surprised with what they will come up with! Learn more by checking out this link Tower Challenge!
NGSS connection: 3-5-ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Fourth Grade

1. Egg Drop Project

You might have heard of doing an egg drop project, but have you thought about all the learning that happens when children take part in an engineering project such as this? Engineering projects are a fantastic way to have children exploring with materials and the science world. In this project, children are given the mission to design a system that will protect an egg from a fall. You can use a variety of materials to build your egg protectors such as: plastic straws, popsicle sticks, bubble wrap, tape, plastic bags, boxes, newpapers, and more. Allow children to create a egg protector, test it, and redesign it to make improvements. To learn more click on this link Egg Drop Project! 

NGSS connection: 3-5-ETS1-3 Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. 

2. Force and Motion Experiment
We know many students love playing with cars and ramps, especially boys! This force and motion experiment allows students to do that, while also learning about the speed of objects and various inclines. To complete this activity, you will need materials to build tracks with various inclines and toy cars. You could use cardboard for the ramp and books to help create different angles. It is best to begin with a small incline and increase each "race track" to a little larger incline. Have students make their own hypothesis about which car will go faster and then test it! To learn more about how to set up the race track, click on this link Force and Motion Experiment!
NGSS connection: 4-PS3-1 Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.