Teach Homeschool Science

How to Build Elementary Homeschool Curriculum Directly From Amazon

July 11, 2020 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

How to build elementary homeschool curriculum directly from Amazon is easier than you think. Also, look at my page How To Homeschool Elementary Students Like A Pro.

Whether you’ve homeschooled from the beginning or suddenly have been thrown into homeschooling, you’ll love the flexibility of being able to choose from Amazon.

I love supporting vendors who sell homeschool curriculum, but in person conventions did not happen everywhere this year because of the pandemic.

How to Build Elementary Homeschool Curriculum Directly From Amazon

Having an option to build your elementary homeschool curriculum is vital and I made this easy for you by creating lists in my Amazon store.

Also, I have options for middle and high school. Click here for How to Build High School Curriculum Directly From Amazon and here for How to Build Middle School Curriculum Directly From Amazon.

Elementary Homeschool Curriculum Directly From Amazon

First, the essential subjects that you want to teach in the elementary years are language arts, math, history and science.

Of course this doesn’t mean these are the only ones, but those four are the basis for a solid foundation.

Too, in the elementary years one-to-one tutoring does not take as long as the academic load that homeschooled kids in the upper grades carry. While it’s true a younger child may need more breaks, the workload is still pretty flexible in the elementary years and you have time to add other subjects for enrichment.

Now that you understand the 4 BIG ones as I call them, you also need to know how to break down language arts components.

Here are the components of language arts and based on your child’s age, ability, or level, you need to decide which ones he will need to do.

Reading. This includes reading aloud.
Phonics. Normally you want to do this until about 4th grade.
Spelling. Phonics is the precursor to spelling. Don’t be so quick to teach formal spelling because a child needs input first which phonics does.

Penmanship (no this is not composition). This is just what it means, learning how to write. It’s done in the early grades.
Composition comes after penmanship and it is about teaching a child how to compose his thoughts.
Grammar. Normally you start this in the second or third grade.

Language Arts Curriculum from Amazon

Keep in mind the subjects you cover in the elementary grades are just a rule of thumb.

Because kids can be all over the place on levels, I am giving you the big picture so you know how to choose.

It’s worrisome to not know which subjects to introduce and when to introduce them. I want you to be in the know.

So look at the subjects below based on grade level.

If your child is at grades 1 or 2, you want to choose a reading program, a phonics program, and a writing program.

If you child is at grades 3 to 4, you want to choose a reading program, a phonics program, a spelling program, a writing program or composition program and a grammar program.

If your child is at grades 5 to 6, you want to choose a reading program, a composition program, a spelling program, and a grammar program.

Science and history can be as easy as reading a book in the earlier grades and then progress to taking more time like from 3rd grade on.

Curriculum from Amazon

Also, to be sure you’ve covered the bases for subjects, use my checklist for curriculum resources below

You can download an editable copy over at STEP 5A of my free 7 Step Homeschool Planner.

Additionally, I have this super helpful post How to Know What A Homeschooled Child Should Learn Yearly.

Now, look at lists I’ve created for you to give you choices on the different variety of curriculum.

By using the guideline above where I explain what to choose in each grade, you’ll be sure you won’t miss any vital curriculum for a grade.

If you’re teaching a new reader, choose a phonics program from the Elementary – Phonics (Up to 4th Grade) List and beginning readers from the Elementary – Teaching Reading & Beginner Readers.
Click here for the Elementary Spelling List.

Click here for the Elementary – Writing (Penmanship OR Composition) List.
Look at this Elementary – Reading List to get you started. Pick a few books along with what your child is reading for history and science and you have an excellent reading program.

Homeschool History and Science from Amazon

In addition, history and science are considered core subjects in some states.

Here is the Elementary – History & Geography List and here is the Elementary – Science List.

After you add the Big Four core subjects, you can add other subjects. By starting with the Big Four, you know that you have the essentials covered.

If you have many learners under the age of 7 or 8, then covering the Big Four for the day is solid. As your little ones get older and as you have time, you can add other subjects which interest your kids.

Sometimes lesson plans can be too lofty for the elementary ages, but remember play is still a huge part of the learning day too. There is no need to fill your day with too many subjects.

The Big Four subjects a.k.a. language arts, math, science and history are the same ones all the way to High School. There is a lot of years to cover those subjects so include plenty of hands-on activities too.

Elementary Homeschool Curriculum

Look at these other tips I have for you:

The beauty of choosing curriculum directly from Amazon is that you not only can meet your kids’ needs, but also meet state guidelines if you have them.

You’re off to a great start this year!

Easy Seeds and Gardening Unit Study for Kids (Middle – Upper Elementary)

February 27, 2019 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Are you as excited for spring as we are? You’ll love this easy seeds and gardening unit study. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies. Also, look at my page How To Homeschool Elementary Students Like A Pro.

So we are always excited to get some seeds sprouted indoors.

To kick off a garden unit study I pulled out an old favorite activity to introduce again.

Easy Seeds and Gardening Unit Study for Kids (Middle - Upper Elementary)

When the kids were preschooler age I loved to let them open and explore inexpensive seed packets (4/$1 at Dollar Tree).

It was such a simple introduction to gardening, parts of a flower, and grasping where flowers, fruits, and veggies begin. A great simple hands-on science activity that engaged them for a long period of time.

Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids (Middle - Upper Elementary). You'll love these tips for an easy gardening unit study! Click here to grab them!

I haven’t done it in years and wondered if it was kind of a babyish activity for them.

However with spring right around the corner I wanted to give it a try.

And I am so glad I did, although my kids are almost 8 and almost 11 this activity was still a hit.

I also added a few additional challenges to make it more age appropriate.

2 seed tray Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Set out an artist pallet with small wells or another divided container for exploration,

I grabbed this divided serving platter from Dollar Tree.

Pour your seeds out among the divided sections and add items for exploration like magnifying glasses, tweezers, a small knife for older children, and the seed packets themselves.

3 supplies for seed investigation Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Let your child(ren) spend a little time exploring and studying the seeds and see what observations they make.

Easy Seeds and Gardening Unit Study Activities For Kids

If you have younger children joining in you can have them sort by size or by color. Let them match the seed packet to the seeds in the tray.

After they got a good look at each seed, seeing how they varied so much in size, shape, and color we cut open a few and looked side.

We talked about how some seeds that are hard to sprout can be helped along in their germinating process.

Just crack the seed coat gently with something like fingernail clippers.

4 cut open seed Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

We also investigated seeds still in the apple, let your kids dig them out with a pair of tweezers to get a real firsthand look at them.

5 Apple seed investigation Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I had the children investigate the seeds and compare as we did when they were younger but this time we dived even deeper into studying them, adding in some journaling, handwriting, spelling, reading, and more as well.

Gather all the books and gardening magazines you have on gardening and place them in a basket or scattered about the house.

More Hands-on Gardening With Kids Activities

How To Make Plastic Bottle Little Greenhouses | 5 Plastic Bottle Craft Ideas

Exploring Seed Activity: How To Do A Sinking Seed Experiment

Use them in your morning time or as your science book during your garden study, this really helps give a little “meat” to your seed exploring time.

6 Seed packets and books Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Kids Garden

Make a list of spelling/vocabulary words associated with seeds and gardening that is age appropriate for your child.

Younger children can use simple words like- seed, grow, and dirt while upper middle school children might learn heirloom, organic, and germination.

These words can be used for spelling, vocabulary, or as journal starters.

My daughter is learning how to alphabetize so for practice I had her put the seed packets in alphabetical order, a practical hands-on application will sink and stick much better than a worksheet will for most children. Also alphabetizing books and magazines is great practice as well.

We also did the planting a seed and watching it grow we documented its progress.

Have them draw a picture of what they see each day from seed to full-blown plant. Even older children can really get a lot out of watching the process firsthand, seeing the seed pod germinate and spread its tender little leaves out and roots down.

Radishes, lettuce, broccoli, and sunflowers are quick-sprouting seeds if you are looking for more instant gratification for the kids.

Next, I had the kids log seeds in a garden journal that was just a basic composition book.

They listed our seeds and then added seed to a little dab of school glue next to it to compare and remember what each seed looks like.

This gives the kids an opportunity to practice handwriting and spelling. Go a little deeper and use garden topics to kick off journal entries as well

7 Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids Middle - Upper Elementary @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

More Seeds and Gardening Activities For Kids

Finally, we used our gardening books and magazines that we had on hand to find and learn more about the seed packets we had.

Research is an important skill to learn and children can gather information from the back of the seed packet.

But get even more in-depth information from books, living books that act as textbooks contain a lot of information to beef up a gardening study.

We used these books to plan our garden, deciding what we would plant, plot size and shape, as well as some crafty ideas.

Supply List For Gardening and Seed Activities

Seed packets of various varieties and sizes
Magnifying Glass
Tweezers
A divided tray to hold everything
Gardening books and/or magazines
Composition book
Glue

Seeds and Gardening Unit

Big Ol’ List of All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum (a.k.a Boxed)

June 14, 2018 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

There are many reasons to use an all-in-one homeschool curriculum and the best reason is that all the planning is done for you. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more ideas.

Whether you’re new, feel like you don’t have time to lesson plan, or just need a teaching break, you’ll want to know these boxed curriculum providers or all-in-one homeschool curriculum providers.

Big Ol' List of All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum (a.k.a Boxed)

First things first.

There is a lot of confusion that swirls around the definition of what is an all-in-one curriculum. It is the same as a boxed curriculum.

That may not tell you anything either because you may think that means it comes in a box. It may or may not.

What Is an All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum

Look at my easy definition below so you sound like a seasoned veteran when you curriculum shop.

An all-in-one homeschool curriculum or boxed curriculum means that all of your core subjects like the 3 Rs and content subjects like science and history are included in the program.

The Definition of an All-In-One or Boxed Homeschool Curriculum

It means just what it says in that all of your basic subjects are covered. In addition, most all-in-one providers have teacher’s manuals or teacher notes along with suggested schedules on how to cover the material.

Like a boxed cake mix, the curriculum comes with everything you need to begin homeschooling for a school year. Normally, you need very little extra supplies to start.

The curriculum may consist of part physical books, part online, part dvd, or all physical book or all on line.

A lot of the options with this approach can be considered public school at home or workbook approach.

However, all-in-one curriculum providers have really changed since I’ve started and some take another homeschool approach like Charlotte Mason or even a unit study type of approach.

Because accredited has nothing to do with the rigor of the curriculum, you’ll want to be sure to read Accreditation Removing the Shroud of Mystery.

Advantages of All-In-One or Boxed Curriculum

Additionally, it’s important to understand the advantages of an all-in-one to see if it’s a good fit.

It’s all laid out which means the lesson planning is done. Some new homeschoolers are not comfortable with their freedom to homeschool and feel better having a pattern to follow.
Contrary to popular belief, they can save you money in the long run because you learn what you like or don’t like about teaching. You don’t spend years switching curriculum because you took the time to learn how to teach.
Not having to worry about lesson planning frees up your time to hone in on the weaknesses of your children that may need to be addressed this year.
Most companies provide you with a schedule on how to fit it all in for the day. It can be a great guide for time management and you can avoid the stress of over planning.
If you live in a state that has stricter homeschooling laws, an all-in-one curriculum can help you to comply with the laws of you state.

There are some disadvantages to any curriculum, but I’ll save those for another time because I want you to see the plethora of choices. I’ll add a few notes as I go along too.

Choosing Curriculum When You’re New

And if I have a savings for one or two below, I’ll let you know too.

And remember these are curriculum providers NOT schools!

Workbook Approach You Know in Public School

*Unless noted all of these are a traditional or workbook approach.
* Also, don’t be uniformed because curriculum is not accredited, only schools. Be sure you read my post about accreditation above if you need to understand the difference.

A Beka.

Christian
PK to 12
Accredited or Independent Study
Print-based and computer-based

A.C.E. (Accelerated Christian Education).

Christian
K to 12
Accredited
Colorful printed packs enhanced with CDs, DVD and computer software

Also look at my video What Is An All In One Homeschool Curriculum a k a Boxed Curriculum

Acellus.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
K to 12
Computer based online
Note: Homeschoolers have a love hate relationship with them. Some lessons are short and to the point, others seem overly easy or unnecessarily complicated. There are glitches at time and scheduling seems to be a problem. Overall, homeschoolers like the flexibility of homeschooling when they want to just login and go.

Alpha Omega LifePac., Switched-on Schoolhouse.
Alpha Omega Horizons.

(Note: You save 10% by buying it from the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op). Four different programs with different approaches and purposes from the same publisher.

Christian
K to 12
Accredited
Note: Weaver is a unit study approach and not a workbook-based approach.
Print-based, computer-based, and online homeschooling curriculum.

Bob Jones Press.

Christian
K3 to 12
Accredited
Print-based and video-based

Easy Peasy All In One.

Christian
PK to 12
Note: This is completely FREE and I will suggest it at times for new or struggling homeschoolers to start with this to see what will work and not work for you as the investment is only your time and whatever you choose to print.
Note: Easy Peasy All in One is a Charlotte Mason approach with a gentle workbook based approach.
Computer-based online.

Designed by Lee Giles beginning 2011 as she put assignments down for her children and saved them for the younger ones. It has grown in popularity over the years.

BookShark.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
K to 12
Print-based and some items computer- based
Note: BookShark is a literature-based approach.

Calvert Education.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
PK to 12
Accredited
Print-based or digital-only format with e-textbooks.

Christian Light Education.

Christian
K to 12
Print-based

Christian Liberty Press.

Christian
PK to 12
Accredited
Print-based

MasterBooks.

Christian
PK to 12
Print-based (committed to putting ink on paper) or pdf downloads for about 90% of the products
mix and match bundles

Moving Beyond the Page

Faith-free i.e. Secular
PK to 12
Print-based or computer-interface and you print lessons.
Note: Moving Beyond the Page is a literature-based unit study approach with a twist of classical, Montessori and unschooling approaches.
mix and match bundles

My Father’s World.

Christian
PK to 12
Print-based
Note: My Father’s World is a Charlotte Mason approach with a unit study twist.

Oak Meadow.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
PK to 12
Print-based
Accredited
Note: Oak Meadows incorporates nature-based learning and a Waldorf influenced approach.

Rod and Staff.

Christian
1 to 10. (Their belief affects grade level meaning they feel most concepts should be learned by tenth grade.)
Print-based

Sonlight.

Christian
PK to 12
Print-based
Note: Sonlight is literature-based with a Charlotte Mason approach.
mix and match bundles

The Good and the Beautiful.

Non-denominational Christian
PK to 12
Print-based
Note: Follows a Charlotte Mason approach.

Time4Learning.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
PK to 12
Computer-based online

Timberdoodle.

Faith-free i.e. Secular AND Christian options
PK to 12
print-based
mix and match bundles

Veritas Press.

Christian
K to 12
Print-based and online courses
Note: Veritas Press is literature-based with a Classic approach.

WinterPromise.

Christian
K to 12
Print-based and pdf. option
Note: WinterPromise is literature-based with a Charlotte Mason and unit study approach.

Homeschool Providers Worthy of Mention

Add a subject or two to make them complete.

These curriculum providers below are also popular because of their flexibility and excellent literature quality.

They require maybe one or two subjects to make them complete. I’m putting them here so you can have them as an option.

Beautiful Feet Literature.

Christian
K to 12
Print-based and downloadable pdf.
Note: Beautiful Feet is literature-based with a unit study focus on history.
Need to purchase: Math program and depending on your child you may need to purchase a composition, grammar, and spelling program.

Build Your Library.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
PK to 10. TBA 11, 12
Downloadable teachers guide, you buy your own literature
Note: Literature-based with a Charlotte Mason and eclectic approach.
Need to purchase: Math program and depending on your child’s need you may need to purchase separate spelling and grammar programs.

Torch Light.

Faith-free i.e. Secular
K and 1 only available now
Downloadable teachers guide, you buy your own literature
Note: Literature-based with a Charlotte Mason and eclectic approach.
Need to purchase: Math program and depending on your child’s need you may need to purchase separate spelling and grammar programs.

You’ll also love these other tips:

Big Ol' List of All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum (a.k.a Boxed). There are many reasons to use an all-in-one homeschool curriculum and the best reason is that all the planning is done for you. CLICK here to grab this list!

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies

August 22, 2017 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn’t know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Also, there didn’t really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies.

Between determining if unit studies were a good fit for high school and understanding record keeping, it was a lot to wrap my mind around.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn't know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Also, there didn't really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies. Click here to read these 3 must know tips!

Sorting out myths from truth, I hope these 3 tips will help you to easily homeschool high school with unit studies. Or at least give you a beginning place.

3 Tips for Teaching High School Unit Studies

ONE/ Understand first that high school is just a continuation of the lowers grades – really!

Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to track credits and courses, but before stressing out about them, plan high school subjects like you’ve done in the lower grades.

That’s right. Begin with what you know.

In my article How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages for THIS Year, I not only give you tips on how to do that, but each lesson plan form lists subjects by general categories; math, language arts, science, history and electives are the framework of well-rounded out high school courses.

It’s not hard to plan when you understand that you’re covering the same basic subjects albeit in more depth analyzing views instead of just a question answer format like your child did in younger grades.

TWO/ Look for resources which teach 2:1 or two-fer resources.

A two-fer resource is another secret tip to homeschooling teens.

Using a resource which teaches two subjects is vital when your child enters high school.

You don’t want your time wasted and neither do teens.

More important though is the reason that unit studies rocked in the younger grades is the same reason which holds true for high school.

Learning makes more sense when subjects are tied together instead of studied as separate subjects. Additionally, unit studies have always been a research-based approach.

This is a skill which is needed on into adulthood.

Living Books for Unit Studies

Resist giving up your unit study approach because it may require a bit more time to put together.

Sure, it’s easy to assign a text book and move on, but you and I know that high school is just hard sometimes. It’s a challenge to plan but still doable.

Begin again with something you know. Look at these things you may already know how and are doing with your kids in the younger grades.

Reading history living books and having your child choose writing topics based on history.
Reading science living books and choosing writing topics based on science.
Reading math living books and having your child choose writing topics based on math.

Now that you understand that high school courses fall into general categories and understand to look for two-fer resources, here are some examples of how to put it together.

We love the book Undaunted Courage.

Just a side note here.

When I look at a book which can serve as a springboard for high school unit studies, I note 3 things:

that it’s a living book,
that it’s high school level so that I can legally note on my high school transcript that it’s a high school level resource,
and I mull over how hard it will be to add external resources to enrich the study.

Not only is your teen covering part of his credit toward history when reading Undaunted Courage , but he is covering credits for literature too. Writing is part of a literature credit.

So your teen is covering 2–3 subjects at once depending on what credits you’ve lined out for the year.

Because covering literature in high school means more than just reading, you’ll want to have a variety of resources for analyzing literature and for guiding your teen how to write well.

A literature-based unit study which has a history setting has been the easiest to start off with at the high school level.

For example, I find it a challenge to round out a history book with literature analysis than a great book suited for literature analysis.

How to Put Together High School Unit Studies

It’s been easier to add history and science of a time period to a great read.

One super helpful resource we only discovered this year and that is the Thrift Study Editions by Dover.

Not only are the books for high school level, but each one comes with a study guide in the back.

For example, while reading A Tale of Two Cities, we studied about the culture of France and England and learned about the issues of the French Revolution.

With a resource like that, doing unit studies are a cinch at the high school level. This brings me to the third point you want to know.

THREE/ Fill your teacher nook with specialized how-two books for you and your teen.

Tackling how to teach a subject with out a curriculum can be daunting, but you can go from research to reward if you choose specialized teaching books.

Here are a few of my favorite resources. You don’t need all of them, but I’ve used them at one time or another to round out our unit studies.

Literature Unit Studies

The Design-A-Study series are timeless. This series of books about science, history, and composition gives an overview of what to cover in each grade. Instead of giving you subjects, it’s helpful because it gives you the big picture of what your child needs to know from K-12. A resource like this is especially helpful if you want to cover a skill or topic that your highschooler may have struggled with in the earlier grades.
Warriner’s English Complete Course. This set of books have been around for years and helps to hone writing. Christine Miller of Classical Christian said, “This excellent reference can be used throughout all three years of the dialectic to teach writing. It thoroughly covers grammar in detail, which provides a nice review for those children that need it, or for those children that missed some grammar instruction in the grammar stage. It also covers writing in detail, with a complete section on writing mechanics, usage, writing correct and clear sentences, paragraphs, and papers, the research paper, using references, and even public speaking.” Read the rest of her review here. Before we started using Rod and Staff high school levels, we used Warriner’s. Rod and Staff’s Communicating Effectively I liked one year because I felt like it was more streamlined. It helps to.understand that I used Rod and Staff in the younger grades and their grammar is very rigorous and by 8th grade formal grammar is completed. When you click the link above you can see the sample of their English and what is covered in the high school years.
Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Don’t get overwhelmed by this book. There is no need to have to read all of it. Focus only on the grade level for this year. Having a handy reference like this will guide you to subjects for each grade.

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I plan credits now that you can see how easy it is to satisfy two to three subjects using carefully selected resources.

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies. Click here to grab the tips!

Also, check out Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies: The Dos and Don’ts and 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

10 More Spring Study Free Resources for Middle and High School Kids

March 24, 2017 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

A spring study is the perfect way to get your hands and bodies moving now that spring is here. I have rounded up 10 more spring free unit study resources for middle and high school kids. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips

Hands-on learning shouldn’t quit after a child finishes elementary school.

No matter the grade level, hands-on learning has a high retention value and making time for it even with older kids has always been worth my time.

10 More Spring Study Free Resources for Middle and High School Kids

Too, I know how hard it can be to find hands-on learning activities for middle and high school grades.

So be sure you grab these 10 free spring unit study resources and download the printables because websites shut down as fast as they seem to spring up (ha, corny pun intended).

Spring Study Resources for Middle and High School

1.
12 Activities To Learn About Photosynthesis.

This first site is from the UK and the reason I’m giving you the heads up is because your kids may not recognize any of the products they use as examples in the student download if you live in the states.

It’s fun to learn though what kids in another part of the world have for sugary food. Otherwise, this is a nice free resource.

Look through all 12 activities, then download the student and teacher’s guide on the right sidebar.

After you get lost in all the wonderful free resources, downloads and hands-on ideas on that page, come back here to grab this next freebie.

2.
Reach for the Sun Unit Study.

This is about plant structure and I included it because it’s one of the resources which you can use for multiple ages of children.

It’s a little different from the rest of the resources I have listed because you have to navigate each section to read the activities and grab each download.

There are colorful graphics and even video.

The game is not free, but the rest of the unit study is so very well done and it makes it easy to implement and teach without much planning.

You navigate the free downloads and activities by clicking on the left sidebar.

3.
Competition Among Organisms Lesson Plan.

Do plants need to compete among themselves in any given environment? Download this free 8 page lesson plan.

From the site: This activity gives you an opportunity to observe the effect on plant growth when plants must compete for nutrients and space. Round up your used milk containers to use for planting.

4.
Geology.

You’ll love this very useful free 62 page download which has free printables like a game board and ideas for making fossils.

Grab some chicken bones, vinegar, dirt and clay to name a few items needed for hands-on activities.

The topics are fossils, plant fossils and vascular and non-vascular plants to name a few.

Also, I couldn’t resist showing you these beautiful hands-on living science books which are created by a homeschool mom.

5.
Biology Educator Guide: Producers Make their Own Food.

This next free download is from web archive but its still a great idea for a long term project.

The topic is about how producers make food and you’ll want to grab soil, 2 healthy plants, craft sticks and ziploc bags to name a few things. This is like a 12 day project of observing plants

6.
USDA Facts Sheets and Plant Guides.

I included this super helpful site because the pdf downloads on each plant makes for a great research topic for an essay.

After all, there are thousands of plant choices to choose from. Grab some art sketch pencils and a journal and your teen could make this a quick and fun science study.

From the site: Fact Sheets provide brief descriptions of a plant, its uses, and cultural recommendations. Plant Guides are similar but more extensive.

7.
University of Kentucky Department of Entomology.

This next site is chock full of ideas.

They have free craft ideas, downloads, stories and art about bugs. It’s an older site and some of the links are not working, but most of them are working. It just has so much that it’s worth your time.

Navigate by both the sidebar and the small print top navigator in order to get all of the ideas.

Be sure you click on the section For Teachers and Parents on the left sidebar.

There is a bug scavenger hunt too which teaches that bugs do have benefits. All of your kids can do that together.

Too, you just have to see the insect art made out of natural materials that I think your middle school kids won’t find baby-ish, but fun.

8.
Plant features.

This is an 11 page download which has illustrations for different types of leaves.

Then, you didn’t think I would include something about spring without finding a history bent did you?

I think you’ll love this lesson plan which is about classifying plants in ancient Greece. In this lesson, you will be taking a look at some features that have been used in the past to classify plants. It’s an 11 page download.

Spring Study Resources

9.
The Amazing Tomato.

Then any unit study worth its weight has to include salsa (okay, okay).

Seriously though, what a fun way to include some edible science in this lesson plan. This is a fun lesson plan which includes how to make salsa and comparing store bought salsa with home made salsa.

It also has ideas for older kids, but I loved it because everybody can join in on the fun. From roots to routes, this is a 4 page download.

10.
Garden Bingo.

Lastly, this is a free garden bingo game. Just download all the pieces and enjoy the day learning about plants.

I hope some of these ideas can get your bigger kids moving and not dreading their daily work load, but still savoring the fun of hands-on and learning together. I think you’ll love these other round up of ideas and free printables for getting outdoors.

You’ll also love these other resources: