Before re-inventing the wheel, I always search high and low for curriculum. For botany, this is what I have found so far (I may forget to list something):
Complete Curriculum Options
1. Apologia Elementary Science- Exploring Creation with Botany
2. God's Design for Life- The World of Plants
3. Lyrical Life Science Volume 1- Bacteria to Birds
4. Great Science Adventures- The World of Plants
5. Botany Adventure! Unit Study by Kym Wright
Activity Workbooks
1. Scienceworks Plants
2. Investigating Science - Plants Grades 1-3
3. Investigating Science Plants Grades 4-6
4. Teacher Created Resources- Plants
Experiment Based Books
1. Janice VanCleave Plants
2. Green Thumbs*
...and many others
*I already have 501 Science Experiments and Giant Science K-6 which provide many worksheet activities.
* Also notates books that we already own.
Nonfiction Spines
1. Eyewitness Plant*
2. Eyewitness Tree*
3. DK e-guide Plants by David Burnie
4. Life of Plants Series
5. Childcraft The Green Kingdom*
6. Usborne The World of Plants
I wish that Ellen Doris had already published her Botany book for the Real Kids/Real Science series, this would end my search for a nonfiction spine to use.
Living Books
1. Read and Find Out about Science titles that pertain to botany
2. Trees and Shrubs by Arabella Buckley and Plant Life in Field and Garden by Arabella Buckley
3. The Plant Hunters (unsure about reading level & content on this, waiting for library copy)
4. Books from botanical artist Anne Dowden- Look at a Flower; From Flower to Fruit (coming from library for preview)
5. Shanleya's Quest & Game (I love the looks of the game, I'm unsure about the book and it's not available through the library)
6. Seed-Babies by Margaret Morley* (printed out already from Google Books)
7. Collecting and Preserving Plants by MacFarlane
Stand-Alone Experiments & Kits
1. Little Labs-Plants
2. Leaf Identification Kit (this one is a little pricey but I want something similar) Cheaper version with less leaves.
3. or the Leaf and Seed Identification Games kit (which is the same price as the Leaf kit above)
4. Botanical Discoveries Kit
5. Tree Ring Kit
Games
1. The Garden Game
2. The Wild Seed Game
3. see Leaf and Seed Identification Games link under Kits above
My ideal course of study involves a nonfiction spine for informational purposes, living books for internalization, experiments to illustrate concepts or teach new skills, worksheets to reinforce concepts learned, biographies of scientists in the field we're studying and the overall experience to be educational, fun and worth our time.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Studying Botany - Finding Resources
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2 comments:
Another great botany spine that we used was "Exploring Creation With Botany" by Jeannie Fulbright. I loved this one, because it reads like a book more than a textbook.
We have used books from the Great Science Adventures series also. I really like the little books that the kids make. My only issue with these is that I have had so much trouble trying to get the little books printed properly. I just wish that they were included as separate worksheets to be copied as opposed to being bound into the book.
hi,
i have a 3rd grader and we are currently working on your #2 - God's design for life: the world of plants. love it!
i also have the 4 apologia books for elementary grades, which i like, but overall they don't have anything for the human body, land animals, some of the earth science, chemistry, or physics. that is if you are wanting to cover all the topics in grades 1-4. i think i'm going to save my apologia books for grades 5 & 6 review and then continue on with apologia's from 7th on up.
so........i purchased the God's design series which is thorough, easy to teach, includes experiments, and you can make a 3-ring binder notebook with the copied pages, drawings, tests, etc.
along with that, i do use lots of library books to supplement.
good luck!!
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