Science Lessons for Young Children:

http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=143650
This is a lesson teaching children about the life cycle of a plant.  It discusses what a plant needs to survive and grow as well as the parts of a plant.  It walks students through multiple activities to learn about plants and in the end they will be able to create a poster of a plant as well as label its parts.

www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=141348

This lesson teaches students about the four seasons.  It discusses the weather in each season as well as which months are included in each season.  Students will watch videos and play games to learn about the seasons and in the end create a graphic organizer by coloring in four different trees to represent the four seasons.

Shadows Lesson:
How and why do different objects make shadows of different shapes and sizes?
Observe shadows with students created from different objects.  Ask questions such as What makes some shadows bigger than others?  How are the objects different from their shadows? or If the object moves, what happens to its shadow? Have them trace the shadows from objects using sidewalk chalk outside on the playground.  After, ask them questions such as "After observing shadows, how do you think they're created? How do the shadows change in shape and size for different objects?  In the end of the lesson, students can create a picture using shadows.

Magnets Lesson:
Begin this lesson by asking students what they think magnets are?  Ask what items are magnetic? Have them make predictions about different objects in the classroom that may be magnetic.  After, allow them to walk around the classroom with magnets and have them test out the different objects that they think may be magnetic.  Have them come back to their centers then discuss what all the magnetic items had in common.  Explain that they were all metals, however, not all metals are magnetic.  Demonstrate this by showing them that a paperclip is magnetic while a penny is not, because coins and aluminum are not magnetic.

Animal Charades:
This lesson discussses the difference between wild and domesticated animals.  Begin lessson by asking students what they believe the definition is for each and have them list some examples for each as well.  Then divide students in half and have some play animal charades by drawing an animal out of a hat and then create a t chart of the animals after the students act them out.  Have students place the animal on the correct side of the chart whether it be wild or domesticated.  With the other half of the students they can play the game headbands where they have a partner and try to guess what animal they are while the other student gives them clues. The students will begin by giving the first clue of whether the animal is wild or domesticated.

Sink/Float Lesson:
This lesson allows children to explore items that sink or float.  Begin by gathering items that they believe will sink or float.  Separate the items into a sink pile and a float pile.  Allow them to test their predictions by filling a tub with water and placing the items into the water.  After testing the objects discuss why some objects sink and some float.  Then create a T chart with the class of what objects sunk and which objects sank.

http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=141581
This lesson teaches children about different parts of the human body.  It discusses the three main parts of the body, the head, trunk and limbs.  It also teaches about the senses by teaching the different parts of the head and limbs.  It discusses how to take care of our bodies which makes it relevant and personal for young children.  In the end the students play a game called show me which allows them to review the body parts and the role of each.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/activities/funscience/balancing-eggsperiment/
This lesson teaches children about gravity and balancing.  It involves balancing an egg on a hard surface using salt or by itself during an equinox.  The salt acts as pedestals for the egg to balance on, and during the equinox the gravitational pull of the sun helps the egg to stand still.  This is a really cool and fun activity that sparked my interest even as an adult.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/lessonplans/chemistry/makeglue.html
This activity teaches children about chemistry.  It allows them to create a mixture and watch how a chemical reaction takes place to form a new substance.  This activity is good for young children because they are always using glue, and they'll be able to test it out in the end!

Good Science Reads for Children:

This is a cute book that shows different types of eggs.  It has beautiful illustrations of each type of egg including small eggs from fish and frogs, to snake eggs, to eggs from different birds, to large ostrich eggs.  This is a good book to begin a science lesson about eggs for young children.

This book teaches children about different animals during the winter season.  It talks about how different animals migrate for the winter while some stay and hibernate while some can stay and handle the winter.

 

How Do Apples Grow? is about the life cycle of apples.  It explains how an apple begins as a flower and grows into an apple until it is ready to be picked.

 

This book discusses the differences between solids, liquids, and gases for young children.  A cute book for children to learn about this important science topic.

 

Who Eats What? is a book that discusses food chains for different animals.  It discusses the importance of food chains and how different parts of the food chain depend on others for survival.  A good book to introduce the cycle of life with students.

 

This book discusses weather on the topic of storms.  It includes very detailed beautiful photos to assist in teaching the topic.  The pictures are realistic aiding to teach children about storms.

 

This is a good book to teach children about weather in general.  It is full of activities to do with children to discover how weather works on their own by doing hands on experiments.

 

The Magic School Bus was always a fun way to learn about science for me growing up.  They are always a cool new outlook to different topics.  This particular book explores the insides of the human body.

 

This book talks about the stars and constellations.  It is intended for younger readers and introduces the night sky and the stars and what they create.

 

This book is a good way to introduce the five senses to young children.  It is filled with different activities that allow children to explore their senses and make discoveries involving their senses on their own.

Science Websites for Kids!

http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/index.html
This website talks about the physics in amusement parks and how rollercoasters are created using physics.  It is created for children and makes learning fun by taking a virtual tour of how a roller coaster is designed and how they work while showing that physics is a major part of this.

http://druniverse.wsu.edu/
This is a blog created by Washington State University.  It has multiple posts created by Dr. Universe where children can go to learn about multiple science topics.  It has questions that parents and teachers ask to review about animals, plants, space, astronomy, chemistry, physics, the human body, and more.  Dr. Universe answers all of these questions and anyone can go to view the questions and answers.

http://www.brainpop.com/
Brainpop is a great resource for teachers and children.  It covers all content areas including science.  It has a lot of cute informative videos that teach children about different topics.

http://www.billnye.com/for-kids-teachers/
Who doesn't love Bill Nye when it comes to science?  This is Bill's website for kids and teachers that includes different activities to do at home, videos from his show, and printout sheets to do activities with.

http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/forkids/
This is a website for kids to explore science created by Howard Hughes medical institute.  It has activities to explore plants, animals, and the air around us.  All of these activities are focused around the science topic Biology.

http://www.funology.com/laboratory/
Funology is a website that includes multiple different science games for children to explore.  It includes games to play for physics, biology, and chemistry.  It also has games to teach about the seasons and the weather.  These games make learning about science fun for children.

http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html
This website is all about the human body.  It enables viewers to tour the human body and discover what it looks like and how the different systems work.  It is interactive where the viewer holds their mouse over any part, and a label pops up to click on for more information.

http://www.planetpals.com/
Planet pals is a childrens site to teach about the planet earth. It discusses different ways to protect our earth, recycling, and the weather.  It is full of different games, crafts, and printout activities to do with children.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/
This is a page that is filled with multiple different science experiments to do with children.  It includes activities involving light, static, bubbles, mixtures, flying objects, colors, sinking/floating, and many more.  All of these are hands on fun activities involving science.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/index.html
This is a really cool site to use when learning about the solar system.  It allows users to type in their weight on earth and it then calculates what their weight would be on the other planets or the moon.

Investigation Box

Science Investigation Box for Kindergarten: Will it Sink, or Float??