Science Based Curriculum for elementary

I'm looking at curriculum for next year. I don't like changing things around but I am trying to figure out where this will fit in the next few years. However, if I were starting out again I might choose to teach everything from the perspective of Science. If you have Science lovers in your house you could do an entire curriculum with these materials.

History: 
Joy Hakim's The Story of Science three book series tells the story of World History and US History through the context of Scientific discovery. It is easy and engaging to read and understand and gives a wide scope of history.

Language Arts: 
For comprehension, writing, vocabulary, science projects and other literature, add to your reading the study guides that accompany these books, also written by Joy Hakim.

Apparently Einstein Adds a New Dimension does not have a study guide just yet.

In addition to or in lieu of these guides you can also purchase a set of Student Directed Literature Units book guides published by Moving Beyond the Page. There is one for each the second and third books and they include social studies, language arts and science. They look awesome.

 

To add additional literature to your curriculum you can select biographies on the Scientists covered in the book or you can pick up one of these learning through literature guides. Intermediate level book is good for about grade 5-8. The Integrated Approach is better for younger students K-5. There are great selections and activities for each book. There are also other books out there to help you select science based literature.

This is a fun interdisciplinary book put out by Teacher Created Materials. Thematic unit study on Inventions, uses the following books; Mistakes that Worked, Ben and Me and Steven Caney's Inventions Book. I like these because they give you fun, hands on, multidisciplinary, learning activities to go along with reading these engaging books. They also have more thematic units on magnetics, the human body, butterflies, the environment, owls, trees, etc. Each one uses about three literature books on the subject.

Logic: 
Develop Inquiry based investigation skills with Science Mysteries! Pick up a variety of these to fill in that logic piece. Tall Tale Math, The Great Chocolate Caper, 40 fabulous math Mysteries, Math for Smarty Pants, Math Mysteries.

Science:
None of these are actual real science so you do need to add that in. I would suggest Real Science 4 Kids by  Rebecca W. Keller PhD, published by Gravitas Press. There are three levels to choose from. K-4 Pre level 1 or Focus on Elementary. 5-8 Level 1 or Focus on Middle School. 9-12 Level 2 or Focus on High School. They come in a variety of units. Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Geology, Astronomy.

You can also incorporate ideas from the UCAR web site. Center for Science Education. They have stuff on there for Home School.

Then of course there are the Hands on sort of books. This one goes nicely with the Inventions thematic unit, it also relates well to history time periods as well as historical scientists.  Hands On Engineering by Beth L. Andrews. 

Geography:                                                                                          For Geography you can use Beautiful Feet Geography through Literature. This uses four Hollings books. Paddle to the Sea, Tree in the Trail, Seabird and Minn of the Mississippi. This is a one year curriculum and highlights the geography of the United States and a general world geography as well. There are topics for scientific study included along with additional reading suggestions. 

Along with this geography unit or the year after you can do a unit on your own state. Use a My State Notebook or coloring book, etc.  Find scientific discoveries or persons related to your state. Of course natural science is all around you. Visit your State and National Parks, learn the history there and participate in the Junior Ranger programs. Fourth Grade is a good year for that as fourth graders can get a free state parks pass.

Writing:

For writing there is a writing program using the same Hollings books, Geography based writing lessons. It is put out by Institute for Excellence in Writing. There are a host of other options by this same writing publisher. You can also use the Life Science based Writing Lessons. 

As with most curriculum collections for study you will need to add a few things. To this one you need to add spelling, grammar and math. We use Spelling Power, Easy Grammar and Singapore Math. Other than that it's pretty complete if you use these ideas. Should get you through most of 4th, 5th and 6th grades.