Saturday, August 27, 2016

Our Great Planet Unit Study



Course description : This course will be a one school year ( 36 week ) study. It can be made shorter by doing extra work each week. It will teach your student about the planet Earth.
This course is suitable for grades 3 -5. Each week ( minus review weeks ) will include a bonus study for extra credit or just for a student that wishes to learn more.


Supplies : Being a home schooling parent of many children, I know that it can get expensive quickly. This is why I am writing my own science program for the year. All videos are free, all reading links are free, there is one lesson you need to buy but it is very minimal, there are crafts and experiments,  you will need a notebook, there will be  craft supplies needed, and papers that need printing. I recommend using a folder to keep worksheets and papers in.



Week 1 - 

What makes the Earth special - 
Read from this website -

Have your student color this page.

Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Do this study on what humans need to live on earth.  Have your students write the questions and answers at the bottom of this study on a separate piece of paper. Keep this paper in their folder.

Have your student write a short paper on what makes the earth special. Have them use the website from the first day if they need to refresh.

Optional additions -
Spend time on this site. Have your student write a small paper on what the bible says about the planet Earth.

Week 2 - 
Take a look inside - 
Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Watch this video.
Color this page.

Do the layers of the earth worksheet ( it is partial down the page, just click the picture to download and print. )

Read from this page.

Optional additions -
Layers of the earth play dough craft. 
Layers of the earth treat. 

Week 3 - 
Land forms - 
Watch this video.

Read from this site. 

Have your student write one fact about each land form in their notebook. Use the site above if they need references,

Make a landform lap book.

Do a land and water worksheet. 

Optional additions -
Make a landform project
Make a land form cookie - use sugar cookie for a base, blue frosting for the coast, crushed graham crackers for the desert, candy corn mountains, rolo plateau, green sprinkles for the plains.



Week 4 -
Explore the habitats - Forests

Read the forest section of this site.

Read from this site.

Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Pick a type of forest and make a forest scene.

Optional additions -
Get out and explore your local forest.
Do a scavenger hunt.
Take pictures of local plants and animals. Have your students write what they see and glue some of their pictures in their notebooks.

If you are not close to a forest, have your student write a small paper on forests.

Week 5 -
Explore the habitats - Grasslands

Read the grassland section of this site.

Read from this site.

Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Watch this video.
Have your student write two facts from this video in their notebook.

Make a grassland shoe box project.


Optional additions -
Get out and explore your local grassland.
Do a scavenger hunt.
Take pictures of local plants and animals. Have your students write what they see and glue some of their pictures in their notebooks.

If you are not close to grasslands, have your student write a small paper on grasslands.


Week 6 - 
Explore the habitats - Deserts
Read from the desert section of this site. 

Watch this video.

Watch this video.

Build a desert biodome. 

Do this worksheet ( I know most people are not close to a desert, just use this site to take an interactive look at a desert ).

Optional additions -
Get out and explore your local desert. ( a desert dome at a zoo would work as well )
Do a scavenger hunt.
Take pictures of local plants and animals. Have your students write what they see and glue some of their pictures in their notebooks.

If you are not close to desert, have your student write a small paper on grasslands.

Week 7 - 
Explore the habitats - Wetlands
Read the wetland section of this site.

Watch this video. 

Read from this site. 

Do this worksheet. 

Create a wetland in a box. 

Optional additions -
Get out and explore your local wetland
Do a scavenger hunt.
Take pictures of local plants and animals. Have your students write what they see and glue some of their pictures in their notebooks.

If you are not close to wetland, have your student write a small paper on wetlands.


Week 8 -
Explore the habitats - Tundra

Read the tundra section of this site. 

Watch this video. 

Watch this video.
Have a discussion on what life would be like in the tundra.
Have your student write down why they would or would not like to live in the tundra, in their notebook.

Do this worksheet. 

Make a tundra. 

Optional additions -
This week is different, most people do not live near a tundra. If you have a zoo or museum with a tundra section, this would be a great time to go explore it.

Write a small paper on the tundra.


Week 9 -
Review week. 


Use this week to review what you have learned. You can do extra reading or if you want, I have included some quizzes below.
About earth quiz 
Earth quiz 
Earth quiz 
Layers of the earth quiz 
Habitat quiz


Week 10 -
Gravity
Read from this site. 

Watch this video.

Do this work sheet. 

Do this worksheet. 

Do gravity painting. 

Optional additions -
Defy gravity experiment

Week 11 -
Night and day

Read from this site. 

Watch this video. 

Do this worksheet

Explore in the day time. Have your student write down some of what they see in their notebook.

Explore the night. Have your student write down some of what they see in their notebook.

Optional additions -
Make a rotation craft.

Week 12 -
The seasons - Winter

Read from this site. 
Take a closer look at winter. 

Watch this video. 

Read from this site. 

Watch this video. 

Color a page. 

Optional additions -
Make a winter snow globe. 

Week 13 -
The seasons - Spring

Read about spring.

Watch this video.

Read from this page.

Watch this video. 

Color a page.

Optional additions -
Make a spring  snow globe.  ( same as the winter just use spring items )

Week 14 -
The seasons - Summer
Read about summer. 

Watch this video. 

Read from this site. 

Watch this video. 

Color a page.

Optional additions -
Make a summer  snow globe.  ( same as the winter just use summer items.  )


Week 15 - 
The seasons - Fall
Read about fall. 

Watch this video.

Read from this site. 

Watch this video. 

Color a page. 

Optional additions -
Make a fall  snow globe.  ( same as the winter just use fall items)

Week 16 -
Review the four seasons. 


Pick as many as the following pages as you like.
http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/match-the-four-seasons/
http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2012/04/me-in-four-seasons.html
http://theverybusyfirstgraders.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-4-seasons-freebie.html

Introduce the next week and wrap up your review with this video.

Week 17 - 
Weather
The next few weeks will focus on weather. The bulk of the reading will be on the same site. There will a few videos and experiments as well.

Have your student write the date and what the weather is that day each day until the weather study is complete.

Read the home section of this site. ( save the additional reading for the optional additions. )

Watch this video.

Read the rain section of this site.

Watch this video.

Watch these three videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8oM9jF3P5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDLxmdxeyKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrLEIMTEnG0

Do this how clouds make rain experiment.

Optional additions -
Go back to this site, take time to read the extras and do any of the activities linked.

Week 18 -
Weather

Have your student write the date and what the weather is that day each day until the weather study is complete.

Read the wind section of this site ( save the additional reading for the optional additions. )

Watch this video.

Read the climate section of this page.

Watch this video.

Have your student write a short paper on their local climate.

Optional additions -
Go back to this this site and do the extra reading in the wind and climate sections.

Week 19 -
Weather 

Have your student write the date and what the weather is that day each day until the weather study is complete.

Read the lightening section of this site.

Watch this video.

Read the cloud section of this site.

Watch this video.

Do these actives
http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/weather-science-how-to-make-a-cloud-in-a-jar/ ( the link below is to be done at the same time )
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cloud-in-a-Jar-observation-book-235909

Optional additions -
Go back to this this site and do the extra reading in the  lightening and cloud sections.

Week 20 -
Weather

Have your student write the date and what the weather is that day each day until the weather study is complete.

Have your student keep a temperature chat this week in their notebook. Each day have them check the temperature when they wake up, the high and when they are going to bed.

Read the temperature section of this site.

Watch this video.

Do this worksheet.

Watch this video.

Optional additions -
Go back to this this site and do the extra reading in the temperature section.

Week 21 -
Weather

Have your student write the date and what the weather is that day each day until the weather study is complete.

Read the tornado section of this site.

Make a tornado in a bottle.

Watch this video.

Watch this video.



Week 22 - 
Weather
Read the hurricane section of this site.

Watch this video and this video.

Make a hurricane.

Read the thunderstorm section of this site.

Watch these three videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qdqyCmfaEY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d155OY8pBCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkoCWVxNRQ

Optional additions -
Go back to this this site and do the extra reading in thunderstorm section.
This is where the use of that site stops. You can choose to read the last few sections for extra credit but this study will not include them.


Week 23 -
Review

Take this week to review what we did over the last few weeks. Let your student pick their favorite type of weather and write a short paper in their notebook about it.

Week 24 -
Earth's plates. 

Play this game and read the links,

Watch this video.

Read from this site. 

Watch this video. 

Explaining earth quakes with oreos.

Optional additions -
Spending time on this site.

Week 25 -
Volcanoes
Watch this video.

Read from this site.

Watch this video.

Pick at least two worksheets from this site.

Make an erupting apple.

Optional additions -
Build a model volcano.

Week 26 - 
The tides and Oceans
Read from this site.

Watch this video.

Read from this site.

Watch this video.

Make an ocean scene.

Optional Additions -
Watch a documentary on the oceans. Amazon, netflix and youtube have options.

Week 27 -
Explore the oceans

Explore the oceans on this site.

Watch this video.

Look at this inforgrapho.

Spend time on this site.

Do a salt water experiment.

Optional additions -
If you are close, visit an ocean or aquarium. Have your student write down their experience in their notebooks. Take pictures and post them in your notebook.

Week 28 -
Salt water vs fresh

Read from this site.

Read from this site.

Watch this video.

Do this fresh water vs salt water experiment.

Make a fresh water scene. Visit a local fresh water source and use items you find for extra credit.

Optional additions -
Visit a local fresh water source. Have your student write down their experience in their notebooks. Take pictures and post them in your notebook.

Week 29 -
Review week. 

Take this week to review what you have learned.
Have your student pick their favorite thing they have learned since the last review week and write a small paper on it.

Week 30
Rocks- Sedimentary rocks

Look at this site.

Read this site.

Watch this video.

Look at this site.

Make an edible rock.

Optional additions -
Have your student write a small paper on sedimentary rocks.
Go out and look for sedimentary rocks.

Week 31 -
Rocks - Metamorphic and Igneous rocks
Read from this site.

Watch this video.

Make a metamorphic rock.

Read from this site.

Watch this video. 

Optional additions -
Have your student write a small paper on metamorphic and igneous rocks.
Go out and look for metamorphic and igenous rocks.

Week 32 -
Review
Make this notebook ( you do have to pay for this but I strongly encourage you to buy and do this project )

Week 33 -
Start this experiment.

Read this page.

Read this page.

Read this page.

Watch this video.

Optional additions -
Have your student research what happens when an area becomes to polluted to sustain life.


Week 33 -
This week will seem shorter but the experiment will take time and student should write down in detail what happens during the experiment. Each day they need to write their observations.

Finish this experiment and write you observations.

Have your student write at least one paragraph on air, land and water pollution.

Optional additions -
Have your student research oil spills in the ocean.

Week 34 - 36
Review

Take the remaining school year to go back over what you have learned.

Have your student write a paper on why they love the earth.

Have your student pick their favorite thing they learned about and write a paper on. Be sure they spend extra time studying this one subject. This will be their final paper.

Make a model earth.



Congratulations on completely this study!






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