First Grade Science Books

[oceantash]

Ok I am new to this whole curriculum thing. What are the best Human Body and Animal books for a First Grader? WTM says to get DK First Animal Encyclopedia and Kingfisher First Human Body Book. I also have a very interested and eager 4 yo so I was thinking about getting the Everybody has a Body book but there were conflicting reviews on Amazon. I also checked out a copy of Mudpies to Magnets from the library and I wasn't really thrilled. My 6yo loves doing "experiments" so things that outline them would be great.

Thanks,

Natasha

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

I agree with WTM, we like both of those books. Check out www.elementalscience.com The Biology program uses both of these books and organizes it for you.

[Rivka]

I really like the Let's Read And Find Out Science series. Level 2 books are appropriate for a 1st grader, and that level includes experiments - either described in the text, or in the end pages.

 

I find that it works really well for us to read the book and do the experiment. My child seems to get more out of the experiment with the supportive context of the text. Also, the books are usually well-written and hold a child's interest.

[Classically Minded]

WTM says to get DK First Animal Encyclopedia and Kingfisher First Human Body Book.

 

Those are the 2 we are using right now along with Real Science Odyssey Life for labs/experiments.

[Farrar]

I really like the Let's Read And Find Out Science series. Level 2 books are appropriate for a 1st grader, and that level includes experiments - either described in the text, or in the end pages.

 

I find that it works really well for us to read the book and do the experiment. My child seems to get more out of the experiment with the supportive context of the text. Also, the books are usually well-written and hold a child's interest.

:iagree: The Let's Read and Find Out Books are really good for early elementary. What we've done is to buy a science reference book - like the DK or the Usborne that were mentioned above. Then check out a pile of stuff from the library. The Let's Read and Find Out are really good, but sometimes I find others that are excellent as well. When we did animals, there were especially a lot of good books - things like Owen and Mzee, as well as an amazing book with photographs of camouflage and books about individual animals. Some of it is just about having a diversity of resources. There are usually experiment books at our library as well, so I can look through to find more experiments. The ones suggested in the Let's Read and Find Out series are often too simple for in depth learning.

[oceantash]

Thanks! I am just trying to figure out which references to get to build my curriculum around. But I put a few on hold from the library so I can see them first. I hate ordering stuff without making friends with it first.

:-)

[Soror]

WE LOVE Let's REad and Find Out my 3.5 yr olds always begs me to read them to her and just likes to sit with them. My 6 y.o. enjoys them as well and so do I it presents info in a way that is easy to understand. There are some Dr. Seuss type books as well that are good and other series.

[bbrandonsmom]

I don't like the animal book ES uses. Most of the animals that we are supposed to read about have one little paragraph, that doesn't answer the questions we need to answer. I end up having to take out individual books on the animals we are looking at for the week. It's a lot easier to retain the info from reading about the animals all week, instead of just one time.

[2_girls_mommy]

I never did find an animal spine that I liked in 1st grade, but we used the Usborne 1st Encyclopedia of the Human Body for that unit, and it worked very well for us. I liked coupling it with the Let's Read and Find out series when I could, and whatever other books we found at the time. (It's been a couple of years, so I don't remember exact titles.. sorry.) I do remember though that we had plenty of activities to keep us busy from the library books. We did our fingerprints and looked at them when we were on skin. We took our standing and active heartrates. We made "lungs" out of balloons and water bottles, things like that. I don't know if the Usborne was recommended in the older edition of WTM, but I think it was. That is probably why I picked it out. I had no complaints about it. (but I did NOT like their 1st Encyclopedia of Animals at all)

[StephanieZ]

I agree with WTM, we like both of those books. Check out www.elementalscience.com The Biology program uses both of these books and organizes it for you.

 

:iagree:

[mammaofbean]

for animals i really like national geographic encyclopedia of animals as a spine. we are taking a break right now because my daughter was very upset about the conservation watch information on each page that tells the number of species in that order that are endangered. i think this would probably not be a problem for most children.

[bbrandonsmom]

Thanks-I requested the Nat Geo one. They also make an animal atlas I'm going to check out too. I find one we like-I'm buying it!

[Hericane]

We used the Nancy Larson Science 1 with our DD4 and DS6. It's all about Life Science and includes the human body. It's a whole year curriculum and has everything done for you. I mean all the work, the planning, the copying, the extra books, the thinking what to say. It was SO easy, and great science content. My DD4 can explain how plants, dogs and people have circulatory systems and what they do.