sweetpea3829 Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Does anything like this exist? After getting some wonderful advice here, I've decided to go ahead and follow an interest-led approach to science this year. I planted some ideas with the kids and they have agreed that they would like to study oceanography/marine biology. We are wrapping up our history semesters and will begin science probably towards the middle to end of March. Somebody mentioned the Evan Moor history pockets in a different thread and they look so wonderful! They would be fantastic if they had something similar for Science, but it didn't appear to be the case. Does anybody know of anything similar, but with science themes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Lapbooks? Homeschoolshare.com has lots of free lapbooks and unit studies including some on science in general and animal studies in particular. If you ask the Googler, you can probably come up with some more that are either free or relatively inexpensive. We don't do the whole manilla folder thing, but instead make a pocket or use a piece of 12x18 construction paper folded in half and trimmed to fit in our binders. It works really slick. I found a backyard bird one for my dds to do last sumer and they loved it. :0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anabelneri Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 What exactly draws you to the History Pockets? Is it the cutout pieces? Or the thematic focus? I'm looking at the Evan Moor science stuff right now, trying to see if anything would be a good fit for us, so I'm interested in answers to your question. :) Anabel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Look for "Easy Make and Learn" books...They have human body, weather, habitats and some other things. We really liked the human body one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 What exactly draws you to the History Pockets? Is it the cutout pieces? Or the thematic focus? I'm looking at the Evan Moor science stuff right now, trying to see if anything would be a good fit for us, so I'm interested in answers to your question. :) Anabel The thematic focus, lol. We already do lapbooks, but for the last 2-3 years or so, I've used Apologia books and had the handholding they offer with their schedule and outline. I DO have Apologia's Swimming Creatures, I just...don't really love it. Just going with the flow is going to be really hard for me, lol. I like schedules and outlines and "do this at this time" because without that, *I* tend to fall apart. But, I figured we'd give this a go...I'm just looking for a bit of framework to build around, and the History Pockets seemed like a good springing off point, kwim? What I REALLY want is an outline of topics to study within our chosen field, some suggestions on projects for each topic, some lapbook elements for each topic (or suggestions for lapbook elements....I can create my own if need be), AND, a suggested list of real literature resources to grab from the library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 The Body Book: http://www.amazon.com/Body-Book-Easy---Make-Hands-/dp/0545048737/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423278186&sr=8-2&keywords=the+body+book I don't know of any for any other subjects though. ETA: I have to add though... the cut and paste craft approach really isn't for every kid... Before you buy a million history pockets and books like those, be sure that your kids will enjoy them. I think my kids would have screaming fits if I tried to make them do that stuff. Which is good because I don't personally love them either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyhwkmama Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I really like Dinah Zike books. http://notebookingcentral.com/product-category/science/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebbyribs Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Scholastic has a couple of things you might like. We have used the Read & Write Mini-Journals: http://shop.scholastic.com/shop/en/teacherstore/product/Read--Write-Science-Mini-Journals I also saw that they have these Easy Science Activity Journals: http://shop.scholastic.com/shop/en/teacherstore/Easy-Science-Activity-Journals They aren't as crafty as the Evan-Moor History Pockets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 The Body Book: http://www.amazon.com/Body-Book-Easy---Make-Hands-/dp/0545048737/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423278186&sr=8-2&keywords=the+body+book I don't know of any for any other subjects though. ETA: I have to add though... the cut and paste craft approach really isn't for every kid... Before you buy a million history pockets and books like those, be sure that your kids will enjoy them. I think my kids would have screaming fits if I tried to make them do that stuff. Which is good because I don't personally love them either. Honestly, I don't love cut and paste crafty crap either. EXCEPT for lapbooking. But as long as it is lapbooking that is done right. I want them to be able to go back and look at their lapbooks and remember key elements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 What about this lapbook from Gricefully Homeschooling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 We have many history pockets and absolutely love them! We also tried the Science Works units from Evan Moor, but didn't get so into those. They do have them for lots of different topics, though, and I'm often tempted to try them again. My kids are definitely into coloring and cutting (but they hate to glue!), as long as I spread them out over a few days. Another option that seems kind of similar is the Great Science Adventures that SWB recommends in the newest WTM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Gonna also echo the Easy Make and Learn stuff. There's no schedule there, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curlymom Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 These aren't pockets, but Elemental Science has a series of lap booking units that can be done separately from their curriculum: http://www.elementalscience.com/units/ The "lap booking with..." series includes stand alone units with readings. The lap booking templates go along with the curriculum. I have the biology templates but didn't really get far into the lapbook since we ended up switching to chemistry. My son really likes history pockets, too. My daughter can't stand them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 DD likes to have things to do. We used ScienceWorks, Grades 1-3 (minus the note taking/report bit) for a good part of Life and Earth Sciences. The activities were a good fit for her, although many of the worksheets were on the way-too-easy side. She didn't care...they took less than a minute to complete and she was happy to have something to do. Some of the lesser little booklets are pretty well worthless, but again, she liked them. I had to add a lot books and videos to flesh out the program, but ScienceWorks provided me a very nice start. It gave me an outline to follow and did provide some books rec, etc. along with the activities. Overall, we loved it for the early part of first-cycle science. There is no chemistry, so we had to switch this year. Another resource to look into is Investigating Science by The Mailbox. There are a lot of very good paper (and other) activities in those. They are generally more advanced/involved than the lower levels of ScienceWorks too. There is no schedule for these books...they are resource books only, but I love them and tried to fit them in when I could. Again, no chemistry. We will likely switch back over to them when we once again hit subjects that are covered. I have links on my blog for ScienceWorks and The Mailbox. I have quite a few pics of several of the projects. The links below show projects from both resources. There are links to the resources we used as well. However, I think most of the ScienceWorks ones are broken in my older posts. Evan-Moor redesigned their TeacherFileBox site and didn't bother to migrate links. :glare: http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Earth%20Science - Earth Science http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Life%20Science - Life Science http://tec.theeducationcenter.com/marketplace/basic/search.do?flow.ctxID=1418316216564{0,8}&flow.seqID=1423319961411 - The Mailbox Investigating Science series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I agree with a pp. I thought of Great Science Adventures when I read your initial post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Hmmm... scholastic has one about the human body that I found to be quite useful. It is suggested for very little kids, like 1st grade, but I found myself pulling it out for 5th grade life science and my kid got quite a lot out of it. Now, please forgive me if this is totally in left field. I've never used a history pocket so my suggestion could be wakka-wakka. I only have a rough idea of what history pockets look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Another vote for the Easy Make & Learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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