Timberdoodle's Science Lessons & Investigations Grade 1 & Grade 3 Reviews

I have some fun science books from Timberdoodle to share with you today, Science Lessons and Investigations Grade 1 and Science Lessons and Investigations Grade 3.  Timberdoodle currently has these available for Grades 1-6!  G has been using the Grade 1 book and F has been using the Grade 3 book as their science curriculum this year.

G with his science book Grade 1

G's book covers life, earth, and physical science.  It does this through investigation and observation as the name suggests.  His book contains 14 science units that build upon prior knowledge and experience as you progress through the material.  He appreciates that all the units include a hands-on activity as well.

Questions explored in this book include:

• How do animals use their body parts?
• Do animals have babies?
• Do plants have babies?
• Do animals from the same species always look the same?
• Do all roses look the same?
• Can we predict patterns for the sun, moon and stars?
• How do we communicate over long distances?

 

Above you can see a few of G's completed worksheets for the unit on how animals use their body parts.

G made a butterfly!

Everything you need to teach this book is included.  There are miscellaneous supplies for various hand-on activities and such that are needed but we have had everything needed already on hand in our homeschool.

Example of Teaching Pages

I like that our books contain teacher support pages and an answer key for worksheets.  There are vocabulary/words to know pages, reading selections with visual examples along with reading comprehension activities, I wonder and research/writing prompts and of course the hands-on investigations (G's favorite)!

F with his science book Grade 3

F's book similarly to G's covers life, earth, and physical science.  His book contains 14 science units.  F's book as expected is more advanced than G's book and is set up for students to learn based of the 5E model:  engage, explore, explain, evaluate and extend.  So students explore and connect with an idea through activities, build on prior knowledge and experience, construct meaning and then use or apply their concept understanding in a fun way.  It's a fun way to learn.

Topics explored in this book include:

• Both Plant and Animal Life Cycles
  
• Group and Social Behavior
  
• Fossils of Ancestors
  
• Weather
• Natural Processes and Hazards
  
• Predicting Motion from Patterns
  
• Magnetic Forces
  

One of F's worksheets from the unit on plant and animal life cycles.

Above you can see a few of F's completed worksheets for the unit on nature and nurture.

And above you can see an example of what our answer keys look like in the back of our books.  I like the simple and easy to read format.

 

This is my first time using Science Lessons & Investigations books in our homeschool and we are really enjoying them!  I like how easy they are to incorporate and the boys like them as well.  I can definitely seeing us using more in the future.  This is a great science resource!

 

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  I received Science Lessons & Investigations Grade 1 and Grade 3 in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Supercharged Science Review

I am super excited to share this post with you!  Supercharged Science generously provided our family with a full year of access to e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum for all levels, K-12.  There are over 700 different experiments, projects, and activities within this e-Science program.  Obviously we cannot do them all and that's okay.

Aurora Lipper

Aurora Lipper's (the creator of Supercharged Science) main goal is to provide science education to families and teachers while helping people learn new things and enjoy science as much as she does.  Rather than focusing on quantity and trying to do all experiment, projects and activities offered she encourages quality and a love of learning.  You pick the activities that fit both your time and budget.  Aurora is talented and a phenomenal teacher.  She is a mechanical engineer, university instructor, pilot, astronomer, and mom.  She has been teaching science classes and workshops since 1999!  This curriculum utilizes lots of pre-recorded video lessons taught by Aurora.  I believe there are over 1000 videos!  Don't get intimidated though.  Most of these videos are bite-sized lessons ranging from 5-20 minutes long, followed by an activity.  Aurora helps science come alive.

There are two main ways to approach this program:  topics and grade levels.  Within the topics section you will find all kinds of material on the Scientific Method, Sound, Motion, Thermodynamics, and so much more appropriate for a range of ages.  Whereas, within the grade levels section you will hit on multiple areas in a given year.  For example, 7th grade includes Life Science, Energy, and Physics of Light and Lasers.

 Here you can see the program by grade levels.  You just click on the level you want to begin.  The Advanced Topics section includes high school material.

And here you can see the program divided by topics.

How to start?  Find a study unit you want to use or something that piques your interest.  Watch the videos and dive right into the activities.  With each experiment there is an itemized shopping list.  You can use these lists to locate ones that you already have the materials for.  So far, we have had all the materials on hand that were needed to complete the activities.  Let me walk you through some of them.

Within the PreK/K Life Sciences we found a fun activity of making a plant press.  I decided to do this with F and G and we had a blast.

First, we watched the plant press video.

 Next, we went on a walk to find flowers and leaves.

 Setting up our leaves and flowers

Then, we pressed out flowers.  I love that Aurora gave several different ways to make a plant press using different materials.  We used paper, cardboard and a belt as one of the ways suggested.  After several days, our flowers and leaves were set.  We laminated them and made fun bookmarks!

 A few of our bookmarks

Another fun experiment within the  PreK/K Physics section was making our own harmonica using household items.  We made ours using supplies we already had:  craft sticks, construction paper, scotch tape, and rubber bands.

Instructional Video

Our Homemade Harmonica

F playing it

 C having a turn

 You can actually slide the cuffs closer together or further apart to alter the pitch.

We also picked topics to work on beginning with the Scientific Method.  My older kids enjoyed finding out how many drops of water they could fit on a penny.

Penny Experiment

A was able to get 43 drops before the water spilled off the top.

A close up of the penny with water

When we repeated the experiment we again got 43 drops.  This led us the kids to wonder how many drops of water they could fit on a dime.

B practicing with the pipet.

 We were able to get the dime to hold 50 drops of water before spilling!

This curriculum can be used by itself or alongside another one as a supplement.  We are loving the hands-on experiments and I love the use of common everyday materials that make this curriculum economical.  My kids read about experiments and do them!  They love that.  All kinds of learners can thrive with e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum as there are readings, experiments, exercises and videos.  Auditory learners will appreciate the teleclasses and videos.  

Geology Teleclass available

Kinesthetic and visual learners will enjoy watching the videos and doing the experiments and activities.  Digital learners will love the text downloads and website reading about the experiments.  There is something for everyone!

Unit 18 Biology Part 1 (There are 60 pages in this download)

Another thing worth noting is that this curriculum works for both secular and religious viewpoints as it is designed from a creation-neutral perspective.  If you have science questions or need help, there is science question support and Aurora is happy to help.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of award-winning Supercharged Science.  I'm really looking forward to incorporating this curriculum into our upcoming school year even more!

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