Science Lessons and Investigations: A Review of Two Grades

I received COMPLIMENTARY copies of these books from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Science can be both an exciting and a challenging subject to teach in one's homeschool. As parents, you get to curate your child's curriculum while you learn alongside them or share your own knowledge. One of the challenges I find is planning and following through with experiments and hands-on science learning. That is where Science: Lessons and Investigations comes into play. 

Two Science Books 

We received the second and fourth grade editions of Science: Lessons and Investigations published by Evan-Moor courtesy of Timberdoodle. We started using the books this summer even though we hadn't officially graduated to these two grades yet. 

Each book is similar in setup. The chapters have a vocabulary and various vocabulary activities. There are also readings with questions of varying levels, projects, and investigations or experiments to complete. 

Grade Two has 14 units on topics such as: 

• What do plants need to grow? 
• How do animals help plants? 
• How do wind and water change the shape of the land? 
• How do maps show land and bodies of water? 
• What is matter? 
• What do scientists study? 

Grade Four has 13 units and includes

• Teacher pages
• Unit concept pages
• Explore activities 
• Reading selections
• Concept vocabulary and vocabulary reviews
• Concept comprehension
• Extended writing prompts 
• Projects 
• And an answer key 

These books are really geared towards teachers (or parents). To help you teach the lessons, there are written objectives and an explanation as to the learning approach. Permission is also given for photocopying for a single classroom so the book really isn't set up to just hand over to your homeschooler. 

For both my children, I have been removing the pages we will complete and they will also be stored in a binder for each child. This way they have what they need and I keep as many of the teacher-oriented pages in the book. 

So far with our soon-to-be fourth grader, we have studied plant life structures, animal life structures, human life structures, and erosion and weathering. In the coming weeks, we will be studying patterns in the earth's crust, national disasters, and more. We might try our hand at making a homemade seismograph, investigating waves, and making a shadow puppet theater. 

I like how there are a variety of activities within each lesson so I can pick and choose which ones we will do. Having a variety also allows our son to pick and choose from the different questions and investigations. All the materials are listed for the investigations so you can easily prepare ahead of time. 

My Thoughts 

As the books are written with more of a school setting in mind, we did have to make modifications to some of the lessons. For example, the animal life structure exploration activity was written for a class of students. We needed to adapt it for our two children. And since the book allows for teachers to copy it for their classroom, many of the student pages are printed on the back of teacher pages. So we will have to put it all together in our binders when we complete the lessons. 

Depending upon your approach to science, you will want to preview the books as they talk about millions of years and animal adaptation. But since this is your homeschool, you can adapt this science resource to your own needs. 

This is a good base for developing a science curriculum for your homeschool. There are many creative ideas for investigation and discussion. Adding in books and field trips, you can really bring excitement to your science lessons this homeschool year. 

I'll be sharing more photographs of our projects and the book on my Instagram account this week.  

"Science units build upon prior knowledge and experience and allow students to apply their understanding in a creative way. Each unit guides students through exploring the science concept and includes hands on activities to extend learning."

Grade Two: Science Lessons and Investigations 

Grade Four: Science Lessons and Investigations 

If you are looking for more resources to go along with your science lessons, please check out these reviews: 

Puzzles in Our Homeschool and Anatomy Puzzle for Kids: A Review of the Dr. Livingston JR Human Body Floor Puzzle.