Elementary Biology lessons

Last year I was overly amibitious.  I decided to cover two homeschool science curriculums in the same year.  It was a little crazy, but my kids enjoyed the material, so it turned out well.  This year is a bit of a review year because we’ve covered biology before, but we started the material when the kids were in kindergarten so they’ve forgotten large amounts of it. I’ve scoured my different Biology pinterest boards to bring you some great biology activities for kids.

{This post contains affiliate links marked with a *.  For more information read my disclosure page}

I’m setting this up in the order CKE Biology* is set up.

 

Unit One: Biology Basics

Biology basics are all those sticky details you need to build your biology activities on later, so here goes.

• Edible Cell model– we actually just covered this lesson today (right before I wrote this), and I remembered this activity.  I plan to make a simpler model using cookies this time.  I also like this shrinky dink cell model.
• Animal classification– not exactly what the lesson is on, but a great lesson on how to classify objects
• Habitat or biome– I’d like to think of a better activity.  In my head I”ve got a ridiculously complicated idea that I probably won’t do
• Food Web-I did a fascinating lesson in college in one of my science classes on food webs, but it required 20 kids, and I don’t have that many, this accomplishes the same thing

 

Unit Two: Plants

We haven’t studied plants yet, so this will be good for us to get into.

• Build a terrarium– This is a multi-step very complicated terrarium, but it’s seriously cool
• Tree unit (with lapbook)– Despite my kids’ dislike of lapbooks, I still think they’re the coolest thing
• Herblore game– And a cool snack because it’s from Almost Unschoolers
• Photosynthesis foldable– But this will be a hit
• Dissecting a flower– This will be a hit
• Leaf shape– Because my boys are currently obsessed with this topic with their obsession with The Ranger’s Apprentice*

 

Unit Three: Birds

This will be a much needed review because when the boys were in kindergarten FIVE YEARS AGO, how do I have kids old enough to say this??????, we studied flying creatures.

So of course we’ll redo and expand our feather experiments, and many activities from our bird unit.

• Snowy owl craft– because it’s cute
• Owl pellet dissection– because my boys are dying to do this with a real owl pellet, or the fake ones with glow in the dark skeletons….
• Bird beak experiment– I remember doing an activity like this in my college science class
• Bird nest unit– because no matter how much I say I’m not a Montessori homeschooler, I still like the little trays

 

Unit Four: Wild Mammals

I’m sure I’ll say this several times as we cove this material, but this might be my favorite unit, because I like zoos, and seeing animals.

As before we covered this a few years ago, but they forget stuff, so I’m sure we’ll review farm animals and zoo animals quite a lot.

• Animal skeletons printable– I’m always intrigued by these
• herbivore or carnivore teeth– this was a big hit with my kids
• horses lapbook– My daughter will go crazy for this, I hope
• Marking your territory– this will be a big hit

Unit Five: Humans

I need to organize all of our anatomy posts, but this will be a great review.

• Candy spine– a HUGE hit
• Brain activities-We learned so much in this chapter
• Circulatory system game-Not just a hit with my kids
• Teach first aid to kids– and when we review this Princess can earn a badge for AHG…
• Respiration experiment– This activity originally started out as “How to drive Mom crazy”
• Learn the names of bones– A huge hit

Unit Six: Reptiles

On pinterest I pair reptiles with mammals for a land animals board.  I crammed reptiles and amphibians into one large unit earlier.  Otherwise I’ve got saved….

Snake craft– you know using Easter eggs

Egg carton turtle– isn’t it adorable?

 

Unit Seven: Insects

Again insects are part of my flying creatures board, so they get to share.

Insect camouflage– forgive the horrid pictures

Insect mouths– This was a big hit with my kiddos

Pollination with bees– and my goodness is the little bee flier she made cute

Insect body parts– free printable

Compound insect eyes– Note to self invest in lots of Easter eggs this year.

Pitfall insect trap– because everyone needs more creepy crawlies.

 

Unit Eight: Swimming Creatures

Most of our previous adventures are covered in this sea animals unit.

Shark quest– who doesn’t love Shark Week?

Mollusks– studying shells

Homeschooling at the beach-why not, who wouldn’t want to homeschool at the beach?

Sea turtle unit– I love sea turtles

And that’s all of the units for CKE Biology, we are super excited for this year.