SilverMoon Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 (edited) DD/2nd wants to learn about animals for 3rd grade. She would prefer good projects at least once a week. I like convenient schedules or open and go books. Nature study stuff tends to not be relevant because we live in a desert. Top of my list is actually Prairie Primer to satisfy the projects need. It covers a fair amount of animals, and it would be easy to add more living books for animals (Burgess, etc). If there's something fabulous for animals out there a different history path could fill her projects need though. What else is out there?? :001_smile: Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 The Burgess Bird Book for Children was a favourite here. I remember TOPScience Animal Survival was pretty good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaceeM Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Memoria press just came out with their new Mammals curriculum for 3rd grade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 My son used The Sassafras series from Elemental Science in 2nd grade. It does cover a lot of animals and their habitats. It had a project for each week, notebook/journaling pages, and extra reading suggestions, which you can choose to do or skip. You can adjust how much you do easily. He loved it and my 5th grader at the time enjoyed listening in. That being said, it is kind of "light" on the science and some people don't like the novel itself. (I didn't like it, but my kids loved it.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 The second Quark Chronicles book covers zoology. I like QC better than Sassafras. They seem better written. When DD was in 2nd grade, she loved the Among the ______ People series, and we read a bunch of the One Small Square books. I really don't know of a good zoology curriculum, though. Galloping the Globe has a zoology component, and you might be able to use that. I'm not sure how in-depth it is, though, since it's been 5 years or so since I owned the curriculum and we never actually used it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsha Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 http://cdn.memoriapress.com/curriculum/science/mammals-lessons-world-animals 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoes+Ships+SealingWax Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 REAL Science Odyssey's Level 1 Biology (Life) covers animals. Below is the synopsis: Life (level one) is divided into three sections: the human body, the animal kingdom, and the plant kingdom. Students study the major body systems through making models and doing tests on their own bodies. Classification and the five kingdoms of living things are studied as students make an animal kingdom book. Animal labs include examining real worms, mollusks, arthropods, and butterfly metamorphosis. Students learn about the plant kingdom through looking at the makeup and function of seeds, flowers, leaves, stems, and roots. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Sassafras and Quark look interesting. :) Quark looks like it may be a bit too high for her, but she has half a year to grow. The TOPS unit looks fun too. If we stay with Prairie Primer it would be a great way to add more animal fun. If the whole Memoria Press book looks like the sample I don't think she'd make it through the first week. :o She's definitely ready for the Burgess books! I'm going to enjoy having them out again. Thanks everyone! I'm going to run a few samples on her and see what she thinks. I'd love to hear any other ideas. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 (edited) Morgan is doing Sassafras this year (4th grade) and she really loves it. I will second the comment that the book is really poorly edited/written and drives me kind of nuts, but Morgan loves it. I have looked at Quark and wondered if it was the better product (grass is greener) but I guess my main goal at this point is engagement and Sassafras is working for us. It's very open-and-go and easy to use, from my POV, and she's doing quite a bit of writing in the log book, which is a plus. Sometimes she'll do a long animal report spontaneously, and that covers writing for the day, as well. Edited January 2, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Morgan is doing Sassafras this year (4th grade) and she really loves it. I will second the comment that the book is really poorly edited/written and drives me kind of nuts, but Morgan loves it. I have looked at Quark and wondered if it was the better product (grass is greener) but I guess my main goal at this point is engagement and Sassafras is working for us. It's very open-and-go and easy to use, from my POV, and she's doing quite a bit of writing in the log book, which is a plus. Sometimes she'll do a long animal report spontaneously, and that covers writing for the day, as well. I just showed her the Sassafras samples and she practically swooned. It has a Magic Treehouse feel, which she adores. I can't stand that style, but she can read it herself easily enough. Then we looked at Quark and she told me to go back to Sassafras. LOL This one is hard to peg. I never would have chosen the Science Shepherd elementary book she's using now, we won it in a drawing, but she truly enjoys it and does it before all her other subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I just showed her the Sassafras samples and she practically swooned. It has a Magic Treehouse feel, which she adores. I can't stand that style, but she can read it herself easily enough. Then we looked at Quark and she told me to go back to Sassafras. LOL This one is hard to peg. I never would have chosen the Science Shepherd elementary book she's using now, we won it in a drawing, but she truly enjoys it and does it before all her other subjects. Yeah, mine is really hard to peg too, so when I find something that works, I just go with it, without questioning it too deeply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted May 18, 2017 Author Share Posted May 18, 2017 (edited) On 5/17/2017 at 6:24 PM, kand said: What did you end up doing with your dd? I'm trying to figure this out for my rising 2nd grader who wants an animal/biome study next year. Unfortunately, the Sassafras samples drive me nuts, so I can't see using them. I'm strongly considering WP AW, but I worry I will regret that, between the customer service issues and the choppiness people report. Somewhere between 2nd and 3rd the girl this thread was written about fell head over heels for birds. We've spent all year on birds. Birds birds birds. Tweet, honk, flap, flutter. Birds. We've done... -kiddie bird encyclopedia, similar to the classic WTM-style with free notebooking pages -more general bird notebooking pages -bird body parts and proper terms (visible, not inner anatomy) -Burgess Bird Book using the free schedule that lines up a nature handbook and realistic coloring pages -any somewhat bird related book she could get her hands on -spent countless time on the id/song bird websites -trips to the Audubon center -in person class on the National Backyard Bird Count (and then a mean virus hit and she didn't get to do the actual backyard count) -Birdology book -watched some cactus wren build nests in eaves, lots of birding in our neighborhood -read Life of Birds aloud to her (slowly) and we watched the correlated episode after we finished each chapter -whatever documentaries were on Amazon Prime at the time -loads of Wild Kratts -collected those little stuffed birds that make real calls when squeezed, named them, left them all over the house and in the car for long drives (gee... thanks kid) She cried when I told her we should probably do something different for science in 4th grade. What I had set aside before the ornithology addiction began: -random kiddie encyclopedias on plants, human body, and animals -Scholastic e-books with human body paper crafts -Green Thumbs plants activity book (old WTM rec) -loads of animal books like Burgess adventure tales, One Day in the Alpine Tundra etc (George), One Small Square books - (she's read a lot of these on her own this year anyway) -Childcraft volume 4, 5, and 6 (plants, animals, ocean life) -Elementary Life Science by Mr. Q I'm a "let's read some real books, discuss them, watch some movies, find an activity book, see where all this takes us" sort of early elementary science mom. She's a "give me a detailed, clear assignment that I can mostly operate myself" kid. I had to write a daily schedule out using the Burgess bird book schedule that meshed a day to spend on the Attenborough book/movie and such in occasionally, and the rest of that was very randomly added. If we'd gone with the general life science stack we probably would have used Mr. Q as the spine (for her sanity) and scheduled days to use the other books (where we could be more loose, for my sanity). 4th grade? Well, that stack is still sitting there. Untouched. If she doesn't get another wild hair to spend a year on Pluto (or something like that) I'll probably just start working through the stack. Until the next Pluto. Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 I was just going to suggest the One Small Square books. I looked into winterpromise for my animal loving dd and while I love the look of it it was hard to justify the cost when there is so many cheap or free resources available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted May 18, 2017 Author Share Posted May 18, 2017 Lol, your dd sounds like a lot of fun to homeschool. My current 7yo is very much not like that--she loves learning until it looks like it's school, and then it's like pulling teeth to get her to do anything at all. She's been expressing this wish to learn about animals and where they live for months though, so I'm hoping by following it, she will enjoy it, and not instantly turn off because now it's "school". I have considered using the One Small Square books and just adding other relevant reading, so it doesn't get too "schooly". I'll have a new baby though, so I feel like preplanned is better. Thanks for sharing what you've done. Maybe the Easy Classical life science schedule? It's a mixture of WTM-style elem science with lots of hands on activities thrown in, all wrapped up in a tidy schedule. Our favorite for animal homes is probably the Wild Kratts episodes though. There are a few seasons available on Amazon Prime, and the entire collection if you do the PBS Kids channel ($5/month). Libraries usually have loads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 I would get Cactus Desert (One Small Square) by Donald Silver - I don't have that one specifically, but I've used another of his One Small Square books to make a unit study for my son, and LOVED it, and have looked at several others. They have kids explore, if they can, a small square area looking at different aspects of it each day. It would be a great nature study book for where you are. They have experiments and activities in the book...but not things like review questions or worksheets (when we did ours I also looked up things on Pinterest and youtube.com to supplement with...but you could just use the activities they have in their sidebars and it would be enough. We did a section a day. The writing and illustrations are beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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