Hands-On Life Science Activities For Grades K-6, 2nd Edition

About the Author.

About the Library.

How to Use This Book.

Correlation with National Standards Grid.

Key to Icons.

Listing of Activities by Topic.

Section One: Living Through Adaptation.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 1.1: What Is Adaptation?

Activity 1.2: How Do Adaptations Affect Where Animals Live?

Activity 1.3: Why Are Feathers Special?

Activity 1.4: What Purposes Can Feathers Serve?

Activity 1.5: Can You Make a Feather?

Activity 1.6: How Can We Be Tricked by Color?

Activity 1.7: How Is Color Used by Living Things?

Activity 1.8: What Happens When the Camouflage Is Gone?

Activity 1.9: What Happens to Camouflage When the Environment Changes?

Activity 1.10: How Do Birds Adapt to Eating?

Activity 1.11: What Are Some Other Eating Adaptations?

Activity 1.12: What Are Human Teeth Like?

Activity 1.13: How Important Is Your Thumb?

Activity 1.14: How Do Animals Move?

Activity 1.15: How Do Some Animals Communicate?

Activity 1.16: How Do Seasons Affect Animal Adaptations?

Activity 1.17: How Do Animals Adapt to Seasonal Change?

Activity 1.18: Can You Design a Better Bird?

Animal Adaptations Word Searches.

Do You Recall?

Section Two: Animals.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 2.1: Who Are the New Members of Our Class?

Activity 2.2: How Can We Keep Our Pets Healthy?

Activity 2.3: How Many Pets Can You Find?

Activity 2.4: How Many Other Pets Can You Find?

Activity 2.5: What Kind of Pet Would You Like to Own?

Activity 2.6: What Can Hair Tell You?

Activity 2.7: How Many Play Animals Can You Find?

Activity 2.8: How Can You Make a New Animal for a Funny Zoo?

Activity 2.9: How Can You Make a Bony Animal?

Activity 2.10: What Can Footprints Tell Us?

Activity 2.11: What More Can Footprints Tell Us?

Activity 2.12: What Clues Can Help Us Read Tracks?

Activity 2.13: What Animals Live Around You?

Activity 2.14: What Do You Need in Order to Study a Nature Square?

Activity 2.15: How Can a Chart Help Us Make Observations?

Activity 2.16: What Equipment Can Help Us Study Our Nature Squares?

Activity 2.17: How Can We Report Our Findings?

Activity 2.18: How Can We Attract Wild Birds?

Activity 2.19: What Is a Bird?

Activity 2.20: How Can You Make a Birdhouse?

Activity 2.21: What Do We Need in Order to Keep Pets in an Aquarium?

Activity 2.22: How Can We Keep Small Animals in Our Classroom?

Activity 2.23: How Do Earthworms Live?

Activity 2.24: Why Is the Snail So Unusual?

Activity 2.25: What Organisms Live Around Us That Are Too Tiny to See?

Activity 2.26: Is It Alive or Not?

Activity 2.27: Is It Living, Once-Living, or Nonliving?

Animals Word Searches.

Section Three: Growing and Changing: Animal Life Cycles.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 3.1: What Is Growing Up?

Activity 3.2: How Much Do People Change?

Activity 3.3: How Does Growing Up Begin?

Activity 3.4: What Is a Chicken Egg Really Like?

Activity 3.5: What Are Some Other Animals That Hatch from Eggs?

Activity 3.6: How Can You Hatch Eggs in the Classroom?

Activity 3.7: What Is a Tadpole?

Activity 3.8: What Is a Good Environment for Tadpoles?

Activity 3.9: Where Do Butterflies Come From?

Activity 3.10: What Is Wormy?

Activity 3.11: How Long Do Animals Live?

Growing and Changing Word Searches.

Do You Recall?

Section Four: Plants and Seeds.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 4.1: What Plant Is This?

Activity 4.2: How Do Seeds Begin to Grow?

Activity 4.3: What Happens to a Growing Plant If It Has No Light?

Activity 4.4: How Do Seeds Travel?

Activity 4.5: How Can Plants Grow Without Seeds?

Activity 4.6: What Is Another Way to Grow Plants Without Seeds?

Activity 4.7: What Can You Do with Plants That Become Too Big for Their Containers?

Activity 4.8: How Do Containers Make Plants More Interesting?

Activity 4.9: What Is a Terrarium?

Activity 4.10: What Do Plants Need in Order to Grow?

Activity 4.11: How Does Water Travel in a Plant?

Activity 4.12: How Do Plants Respond to Light?

Activity 4.13: How Do Plants Respond to Gravity?

Activity 4.14: How Can We Make a Visual Record of Plant Growth?

Activity 4.15: What Are the Parts of Some Common Plants?

Activity 4.16: Why Are Leaves Important?

Activity 4.17: How Are Leaves Alike and How Are They Different?

Activity 4.18: How Can You Preserve the Leaves You Collect?

Activity 4.19: How Can You Collect Bark Without Damaging the Tree?

Activity 4.20: How Do Roots Grow and Develop?

Activity 4.21: What Are the Parts of a Flower?

Activity 4.22: How Can You Make a “Dandy” Tasting Salad?

Activity 4.23: What Parts of Plants Do You Like to Eat?

Activity 4.24: Can We Make a Whole Meal with Just Plants?

Activity 4.25: How Can We Know What Kind of Tree It Is?

Activity 4.26: If We Can’t Climb It, How Can We Measure It?

Activity 4.27: Is This a Plant?

Activity 4.28: What Is This Strange Growth?

Activity 4.29: What Does Your Strange Organism Grow On?

Activity 4.30: What Have We Learned About Mold?

Plants and Seeds Word Searches.

Do You Recall?

Section Five: Body Systems.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 5.1: How Do Fingerprints Compare?

Activity 5.2: How Big Is the Average Person Your Age?

Activity 5.3: How Can You See Your Pulse?

Activity 5.4: What Is a Blood-Pressure Cuff?

Activity 5.5: How Do the Body Systems Work Together?

Activity 5.6: What Is Your Lung Capacity?

Activity 5.7: How Does an Apple Skin Protect the Apple? (and How Does Our Skin Protect Us?)

Activity 5.8: How Does the Skin Help Regulate Body Temperature?

Activity 5.9: What Do Our Bones Do for Us?

Activity 5.10: Are Human Bones Large or Small?

Activity 5.11: How Many Bones Can You Count?

Activity 5.12: How Can Doctors Tell Whether a Bone Is Broken and Where?

Activity 5.13: How Is a Splint Applied to a Broken Bone?

Activity 5.14: How Are Bones Connected at a Joint?

Activity 5.15: What Are Tendons, and How Do They Work?

Activity 5.16: What Is Bone Like Without the Mineral Material?

Activity 5.17: How Many Muscles Can You Identify?

Activity 5.18: How Do Voluntary and Involuntary Muscles Differ?

Activity 5.19: What Is Muscle Sense?

Activity 5.20: How Fast Are Your Reactions?

Activity 5.21: How Fast Do Your Nails Grow?

Activity 5.22: What Does Hair Look Like Under a Microscope?

Body Systems Word Searches.

Do You Recall?

Section Six: The Five Senses.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 6.1: In What Ways Do We Depend on Our Eyes?

Activity 6.2: How Well Can You Judge Depth with One Eye?

Activity 6.3: Which Is Your Dominant Eye?

Activity 6.4: How Well Do You Remember What You See?

Activity 6.5: Why Do We Need Five Senses?

Activity 6.6: How Do Our Eyes Help Us "Hear"?

Activity 6.7: How Does a Picture Stimulate Your Senses?

Activity 6.8: What Happens to the Iris as Light Changes?

Activity 6.9: How Is the Eye Like a Camera Diaphragm?

Activity 6.10: How Can You See Through a Solid Object?

Activity 6.11: What Is a Blind Spot?

Activity 6.12: How Effective Is Your Side Vision?

Activity 6.13: Can You Save the Fish?

Activity 6.14: How Can Our Eyes Make Colors Seem to Change?

Activity 6.15: How Well Can You See in the Dark?

Activity 6.16: How Fast Can You Judge What You See and Take Appropriate Action?

Activity 6.17: How Fast Do Odors Travel?

Activity 6.18: How Long Can You Retain a Smell?

Activity 6.19: What Foods Can Your Nose Identify?

Activity 6.20: How Is Taste Affected by Smell?

Activity 6.21: How Can You Tell Whether Taste Is Affected by Smell?

Activity 6.22: How Can You Match Things Without Seeing Them?

Activity 6.23: What Sounds Do Your Ears Recognize?

Activity 6.24: What Sounds Do You Hear in Paper?

Activity 6.25: How Well Do You Know Your Classmates' Voices?

Activity 6.26: How Well Can Your Ears Alone Tell You What's Happening?

Activity 6.27: How Much Can You "See" with Your Ears?

Activity 6.28: What Is a Stethoscope?

Activity 6.29: What Differences in Taste Do People Have?

Activity 6.30: Which Part of the Tongue Is Most Sensitive to Taste?

Activity 6.31: How Can We Classify Foods by Taste?

Activity 6.32: How Does a Sudden Change in Temperature Affect Us?

Activity 6.33: How Well Can You “Observe” with Your Sense of Touch?

Activity 6.34: How Much Can You “See” with Your Hands?

Activity 6.35: Where Is Your Sense of Touch Most Sensitive?

Activity 6.36: What Parts of Your Body Can Feel Things Best?

Activity 6.37: What Is Warm and What Is Cold?

Activity 6.38: How Many Touch Words Can You Find?

Five Senses Word Searches.

Do You Recall?

Section Seven: Health and Nutrition.

To the Teacher.

Correlation with National Standards.

Activity 7.1: What Are We Made Of?

Activity 7.2: Why Do We Wash Our Hands Before Handling Food?

Activity 7.3: Why Are the Basic Food Groups Important?

Activity 7.4: What Are the Most Common and the Most Popular Foods?

Activity 7.5: How Well Balanced Is Your Diet?

Activity 7.6: How Can We Test Foods for Protein?

Activity 7.7: Which Foods Contain Sugar?

Activity 7.8: Which Foods Contain Starch?

Activity 7.9: Which Foods Contain Fat?

Activity 7.10: How Do People Count Calories?

Activity 7.11: How Many Calories Do You Use?

Activity 7.12: How Are Teeth Shaped for Their Task?

Activity 7.13: What Does Tooth Decay Look Like?

Activity 7.14: Why Are Healthy Teeth Important to You?

Activity 7.15: How Can You Clean Your Teeth Best?

Health and Nutrition Word Searches.