how do you do science with a 5th grader?

[Only me]

Up until now I've been doing science lite with my ds who is currently in 4th grade. Next year I want to step it up a notch for 5th grade. I'm not sure which curriculum I am using yet but I want him to become more independent. Up until now I've been reading a chapter to him and then discussing it. I haven't required any written work or tests. I feel that this isn't enough but I'm wondering how I should transition to having him work independently. For those of you who use textbooks do you just hand them the book at this age and have them read it and answer the questions by themselves?

[Mom2legomaniacs]

As far as encouraging them to work more independently, I'll answer this in the context of any subject and not just science. I work with mine more closely in general. I have found that, in the long run, it is more effective for us to do things that way.

I do test my 4th grade ds. I give him spelling tests, grammar tests (R&S test book), SOTW history tests. I do not help him with those unless he needs clarification on a question or help spelling a complicated name on the history test.

When he is doing his work and asks about something, I will usually direct him on how to find the answer himself. This helps him to learn where and how to look for the answers himself before asking for help. He still asks, but I redirect if possible.

For that age, I do not anticipate just handing him a book and turning him loose. For science, I got the Singapore MPH for next year. I don't know how that will play out as we have not used it before. I still don't see just handing it to him to do on his own without direction. Usually, the lesson is done with one of us (me or dh) and then ds is given a worksheet for the lesson that he mostly does on his own. But we help if needed.

 

HTH answer some of what you are asking about.

[Staci in MO]

He read the chapter and then we discussed the chapter together. I used Prentice Hall Science Explorer so I usually just used the questions at the end of the section. I would also ask him what the bold-face vocabulary words meant.

 

I hope to be a bit more organized next year (sixth grade) and give him written quizzes.

[Stacy in NJ]

Well, I'm probably the lamest science teacher there is, but I'll explain how we do it. The first half of the year we used Exploration Education as our curriculum. We watched the CD together, did a simple write-up in the student's book and did the experiment. After becoming somewhat bored with this program, I bought a Prentice Hall Science Explorer text (Human Body). We read a lesson together, taking turns, and outline as we read. That's it, so far no experiments have been necessary. At the moment I intend to continue on with Prentice Hall.

[mcconnellboys]

Well, I'm moving into more independent work next year, but not quite that independent. I'm using the RD books as spines, so will read the intro section and guide ds in outlining it (until he gets comfortable with that, then he'll just do it without guidance); he'll read the spreads, himself and I'll have certain activities for him to do along with that, depending on the day.

 

Some days it will be adding people to his science timeline; others it may be doing one or more sketches and labeling those; some days there will be projects or experiments to work or at least start; then he'll get started on readings for the rest of the week on his own.

Some weeks there will be reports due at the end of the week regarding a particular topic.

 

I will be creating tests for him regarding this work, as well. I do wish that I had put my older son through more testing in his middle school years to prepare him better what he would encounter when he left home.

 

Regena

[coffeegal]

For those of you who use textbooks do you just hand them the book at this age and have them read it and answer the questions by themselves?

 

I've always done a transition. My first step is have the child read the book and then discuss the questions at the end with the child. The second is to have the child read the book and write the answers at the end. We then discuss the answers together. My current 5th grader spends 2 days outlining each topic (We're using McGraw-Hill), then he answers the review questions (written) and does an experiment. I check to ensure the outline is done per my instructions and discuss his answers to the review questions with him. It's fairly painless. My up and coming 5th grader will begin outlining in a few months. We will sit down together for several weeks until he is comfortable outlining his science text. At that time he'll be relatively independent.

[MelissaM]

"Look, honey, that is a worm."

 

Science complete.

[JFSinIL]

either the Prentice Hall I read about often on these boards, or Singapore Science MFH - I am using the 6th grade this year, and the text is colorful, the activity guides and workbooks that go with it are mostly worksheets (with some hands-on stuff you have to set up). All you have to do is assign each day what pages to read/do in one or more of the thin books (like Singapore math, science comes in myriad small booklets rather than big fat texts.)

[Harriet Vane]

I like two curriculums at this age: Apologia (the elementary curriculum for kids) and Prentice-Hall Science Explorer.

 

For Apologia, we read, and discuss the italicized questions found throughout the chapter. Dd does the notebook activities, and I use the end-of-chapter review questions as her test. She also is making the "ocean box" (a diorama that includes the creatures she learns about throughout the book). Since we have a co-op that offers labs, I don't work all that hard about making sure we do labs at home. If dd is motivated by a lab, she does it. Otherwise I gladly leave labs to our co-op.

 

PH is well laid out and easy to follow. We do not do all the assignments that are offered, but we do some. I also just use their test practice for our tests, though I think PH offers tests and other ancillary materials if you are interested.