End of Year Science

As the end-of-the-year quickly approaches, we often find ourselves looking for exciting ways to engage our kids, keep their interest, and teach them all the way until the last day.  Okay, okay....the last week(ish), LOL.  So often Science and Social Studies take a backseat to the daily demands of math and literacy, but there are SO many ways to incorporate science on a cross-curricular level.  Why not end the year with a BANG and incorporate hands-on science activities that include a literacy and math component as well?!  

Abby and I created a year's worth of The Science Of...resources to meet the needs of science, but also incorporate literacy and math components.  These are our FAVORITE resources(I know, we're biased), but we LOVE them!!  And so do teachers and students across the globe!!  

Here's what we have on tap for end-of-year cross-curricular science activities.

The end of the school year is a great time to teach about the ocean & ocean animals.  A pretty great segue into summer, don't you think?!    Two weeks worth of our science plans & activities focus on oceans and ocean animals.  One of my favorite activities is "eating the ocean".  We make little ocean parfaits and then write about the different ocean animals and ocean life that can be found in each level of the ocean.  Ocean trioramas are always a school-to-home favorite, too!

My kids have always seemed to have an ocean animal fascination.  Quite frankly, I do too! LOL.  We only live an hour away from the beach, so I'll often take a day trip down to Galveston during this time of the year and have my boys help me collect artifacts to bring back and share with my kids.  Shells, the occasional shark tooth!!!, sand, etc.  We talk all about the different animals in the ocean, the foods they eat, how they protect themselves from danger...etc.  My kids are always fascinated to see how small octopuses can be and the looks of disgust on their faces when they learn people eat octopus always gives me a little giggle.  

Right now, Target is carrying these darling ocean animal erasers in the dollar spot!!!  Aren't they great?!  We'll be using these as counters for some of the ocean themed games we have planned.

Teaching thematically also gives us an opportunity to introduce rich vocabulary to our kids and prompt them to apply their learning to everyday activities.  Little marine biologists, if you will :)  

After ocean animals and ocean life, we move right into dinosaurs.  Our babies sure do love dinosaurs, don't they?!  And these activities are defintely engaging and hands-on!!!  

Speaking of dinosaurs, Target is KILLING it right now in the dinosaur science department!!!  Just look at all these dinosaur goodies I found at Target in the dollar spot!  These would be such a great compliment to the activities planned for dinosaur week!

We've heard from so many teachers how much they loved kitchen chemistry week!  Cooking & exploring physical and chemical changes sounds like a pretty great way to end the year.  Anytime I can incorporate food into my lesson plans, I'm ALL in.  My friends know this well :)  #noshame

Abby and I also created a "sample" science packet focusing on the science of sunscreen...a pretty timely, and important!, concept heading into the sunny and hot summer days.  And if you're only needing a week's worth of cross-curricular lesson plans....or want to see what "The Science Of..." is all about....this is a great resource to have on hand!

Here's one of our sweet homeschool readers proudly displaying his Science of Summer activities!  I absolutely LOVE this pic!!!  How precious is his work?!

Lots of talk about sunscreen....

How sunscreen works, sunburn info, and some fact & opinion fun, to boot.

I had my boys do these activites the first couple of weeks of summer last year because they're always fighting me about wearing sunscreen.  Why?!  LOL. 

A couple of the experiments included helped them to visually see the kind of damage the sun can do if we choose not to keep our sun protected with sunscreen.  In fact, I think I might have laid on the info pretty thick because they sure didn't forget to remind me when I wasn't wearing any, haha.  

Alright...time to head outside.  And no, I won't forget my sunscreen!  LOL!!!!