All about physics....Part II

Here is the rest of our unit......

Part II

Magnets

Electricity

To see Part I follow the link below....

Part I

Big Bang

Forces and Motion

Light

Sound

We used Usborne's book What's Physics All About? as a spine...

I love this book also from Usborne, 365 Science Activities many an experiment was taken directly from this book!

We also used Brainpop Junior and Brainpop videos/activities/quizzes.  *Note* Brainpop is a subscription based website.. several DL schools will have a subscription you can access... if not I highly recommend adding it to your homeschooling budget, it is worth every penny!!

I also used a number of printables from TeachersPayTeachers....
Sweet Pea wanted some notebooking elements that I was too lazy to make!

Magnets

We read the corresponding chapter on magnets in What's Physics all About?

Great videos...
Brainpop Jr - Magnets 
Brainpop- Magnetism

We also read this book together.. love the Magic School Bus chapter books;
Amazing Magnetism

Here you can find a lapbook based on this book... we used some of the printables.

More great videos....
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Magnetism
Scishow- Animal Magnetism

This is a fabulous science kit.. lots of great ideas and an easy to follow format for experiments... Magnetic Science.

 There are a billion great magnet projects out there...
 do a quick search and do whatever catches your eye!

Here are a few we enjoyed....
 Playing with our compasses and hiding things in the backyard to create a scavenger hunt...
The kidlets spent entirely too much time playing with the magnets in their science kit....
Find the magnetic iron in your breakfast cereal....


Electricity
We read the corresponding chapter on electricity in What's Physics all About?

 We made a potato battery!
 So fun... we didn't have a led light so we used our fancy volt meter instead :)

Here are some great videos...

Brainpop- Electricity
Electric Circuits
Bill Nye the Science Guy- Electricity
Magic School Bus- Gets Charged
 

Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

 Our scientist study was two fold.... Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

 The kids also love working on projects with Snap Circuits!

 

Hope you enjoyed our foray into physics... sorry it took me so long to post Part II :)











 

All about sharks....

We just loved our coral reef unit!  Goober was interested in all the sharks we came across during our study so it was only natural to delve deeper.....

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a book or three

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Shark-Lapbook

 

Here are the books we used:

 Magic School Bus Chapter book- Shark Escape.

 

 DK Eyewitness Books: Sharks

Usborne- Sharks

And this gem that I have been recently introduced to... 

make sure you check out all the science comics!!

Science Comics: Sharks: Nature's Perfect Hunter

And other great books you can find at your local library!!

We found some great videos....

The Shark Academy playlist on YouTube is fantastic!  

Why don't sharks have bones? - Scishow

Super Sharks- Scishow Kids

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life

 Here is a sample of the finished lapbook....  

and yes Goober wrote hangry on the diet minibook :)

We didn't actually watch a 'fun' movie for this unit... we were so enthralled with Blue Planet we ended up watching Blue Planet II for fun...:)

 Sharks are really cool!

More explorers and the fur trade...

On to explorers as we take a trip through Canadian history! 

There are so many great books and resources..

Here's what we did:

1. Read some books together.

2. Watched some short videos.

4. Some fun activities.

5. Sweet Pea included notebooking pages in her Canadian History notebook, Goober did some mini books for the explorers lapbook he is putting together.

The book I'm using as a spine is The Story of Canada.

 

As well as, The Kids Book of Canadian Exploration.

We read these books together;

The Red Sash by Jean Pendziwol

From the cover:

The Red Sash is the story of a young Metis boy who lives near the fur trading post of Fort William, on Lake Superior, nearly 200 years ago.

The Broken Blade by William Durbin

From the cover:

In 1800, 13-year-old Pierre La Page never imagined he'd be leaving Montreal to paddle 2,400 miles. It was something older men, like his father, did. But when Pierre's father has an accident, Pierre quits school to become a voyageur for the North West Company, so his family can survive the winter. It's hard for Pierre as the youngest in the brigade. From the treacherous waters and cruel teasing to his aching and bloodied hands, Pierre is miserable. Still he has no choice but to endure the trip to Grand Portage and back. 

There are lots of great youtube videos and Canadian Heritage Minutes for the individual explorers, so I won't list them all here ;)

Each kidlet also did a project on the beaver.

Goober did an animal study page from 123homeschool4me.com

He thinks his beaver drawing looks like a business man with a mustache...hahahaha!

Sweet pea wrote a beaver report, typed it up and presented it!

We watched a couple documentaries:

Leave it to Beavers- a PBS documentary 

Life of Mammals- BBC- Episode- Chisellers 

There is lots to learn here... we read through the Story of Canada (#1 The beginning), and I answered questions or clarified where necessary.  

We mostly read about New France and the various battles up to and including the War of 1812 without too many extra activities.  

The kidlets are anxious to learn about pioneers, so being true to child-led learning that's where we will be heading next :)

All about coral reefs.....

Goober announced the other day that he would like to go to the Great Barrier Reef!  

As much as I would love to fulfill this request... 

for my benefit as much as his.... it isn't happening anytime soon.

How about learning all about coral reefs?  

Would that satisfy your curiosity in the meantime?  

The answer was a disappointed yes... so I jumped all over that!

Luckily it doesn't hurt my feelings to put together another science unit... 

 Here is how we do it:

 1. Read a chapter or two of a related book

2. Complete one or two lapbook elements per day

3.  Watch some great videos and documentaries

4. Assemble the lapbook

5. Finish off with a great 'fun' movie night!

My favourite free lapbook website (Homeschool share) set us up with a perfect lapbook!

Coral Reef Animal Lapbook

Here are the books we used:

Magic School Bus Chapter Book- The Fishy Field Trip

 

Coral Reef: Around the Clock with the Animals of the Ocean

DK Eyewitness Books: Fish 

Usborne- First encyclopedia of seas and oceans

And any other great books you can find at your local library!

Here are some of the great videos we watched: 

Crash Course Kids- The Life Hydrologic

Scishow- White sand beaches

It's not a science unit without a Sir David Attenborough documentary.....

Great Barrier Reef

Here is a sample of the finished lapbook!

Movie night- Finding Nemo of course!

Enjoy discovering coral reefs!

All about physics.....Part I

That was what my Sweet Pea suggested for science last year... all physics!  I have to admit this one was tricky... there are so many topics and lots to potentially cover!  Sweet pea was 10 and Goober was 7 when we did this unit.

Sweet Pea did a physics interactive notebook (our first!)... see below for pictures.  Goober did an activity here and there, mostly he listened to the books, watched the videos and did the experiments, definitely not as much writing as Sweet Pea... but he learned tons!

Here is how we broke it down....

Part I

Big Bang

Forces and Motion

Light

Sound

Part II - separate post!

Magnets

Electricity

Simple machines

Flight

Engineering

We used Usborne's book What's Physics All About? as a spine...

I love this book also from Usborne, 365 Science Activities many an experiment was taken directly from this book!

We also used Brainpop Junior and Brainpop videos/activities/quizzes.  *Note* Brainpop is a subscription based website.. several DL schools will have a subscription you can access... if not I highly recommend adding it to your homeschooling budget, it is worth every penny!!

I also used a number of printables from TeachersPayTeachers.... Sweet Pea wanted some notebooking elements that I was too lazy to make!

The Big Bang was as good a spot as any to start the study of matter and its motion and behaviour through space and time...

We read through our spine book and watched some great videos....

Brainpop- Big Bang

The Big Bang- Crash Course Astronomy

The Beginning of Everything - In a nutshell

There are a few picture books about the Big Bang... I didn't delve into too much detail.. you could probably spend awhile on this topic... maybe a future unit when my kidlets are a bit older!

I do love this book however..The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins it has a chapter titled, When and how did everything begin?  A perfect reference for some of those tough questions!

Forces and Motion

We read the corresponding section in What's Physics all About? and then I ended up buying these notebooking pages from TeachersPayTeachers...  Force and Motion Interactive Notebook..

Great videos....

Brainpop Jr- Pushes and Pulls

Brainpop- Forces

Goober loved this book... lots of discussion about friction!

Magic School Bus- Plays Ball

I overheard the kidlets at the park... pushing each other down the slide and talking about balanced vs unbalanced forces.... then some talk about friction!  The playground is the perfect place for physics experiments and demonstrations!

More great videos...

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Motion episode 

Introduction to gravity- Crash Course Kids 

Brainpop- Gravity

Our scientist study was on Isaac Newton... we read this book aloud..Who was Isaac Newton?

 

Brainpop- Newton's Laws of Motion

Brainpop- Isaac Newton

We also did this activity on Isaac Newton...  I like that it was only $3 and had a couple difficulty levels so I could use it for both kidlets..

 

There are loads of experiments for Newton's Laws of Motion... here are a couple...

First Law- Inertia

An object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it.

Kick a ball...  push a toy car..... sit on a swing :)

Second Law- Force = Mass x Acceleration

The bigger the force the more something will accelerated.  The more mass something has the bigger the force needed to make it accelerate.

Use two books... a light one and a heavy one- try to push with one finger.

Weigh two toy cars and send them down a ramp, time how fast they go... compare the weight, speed and distance :)

Third Law- Reaction

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

We made balloon cars... so much fun!  Similar to this one but we used cardstock to make the car....

Light

We read the corresponding sections on light in What Physics is All About?  I found this great printable on the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

 Great videos... 

Brainpop- Electromagnetic Spectrum 

Brainpop- Refraction and Diffraction

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Light Optics, Bending and Bouncing

Great experiments if you have a prism... or we did some out of the Usborne 365 Science Activities.... bending straws, flipping arrows... fun!

More videos....

Brainpop- Rainbows

Brainpop- Colour

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Light and Colour 

The Magic School Bus is also a great resource for light and rainbows!

We also love this song, RoyGBiv by They Might Be Giants!

Summer is a great time to find rainbows in the sprinkler... and rainbow art is always fun!

Sound

We read the corresponding sections in What Physics is All About?

Great videos....

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Sound episode

Brainpop- Waves

Brainpop- Sound

Our scientist study was on Isaac Newton... we read this book aloud.....Who was Alexander Graham Bell?

We also did this activity on Alexander Graham Bell....  I like that it was free and had a couple difficulty levels so I could use it for both kidlets..

 

The kidlets made a string phone.... and then proceeded to tell each other jokes..... so much fun!

Make sure to watch a thunderstorm....

 nothing demonstrates the speed of sound vs light better than a good thunderstorm :)

Stay tuned for Part II!