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Summer Science Resources K-5

Summer Science Resources K-5
Summer ScienceResources K-5

Recommended Books by Grade Recommended Books by Grade

The following lists will provide you with a variety of ways to keep your young scientist engaged in learning and exploring science, engineering, and technology throughout the summer.

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Kindergarten

  • Aliki. My Five Senses
  • Aliki. My Visit to the Zoo
  • Fowler, Allan. What Magnets Can Do
  • Gibbons, Gail. Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree
  • Hall, Zoe. The Surprise Garden
  • Hickman, Pamela. A Seed Grows
  • Kingfisher Publishing. Animal Babies on the Farm
  • DK Publishing. Growing Things (Play and Learn)
  • DK Publishing. See How They Grow: (Frog, Duck, Owl)
  • Pascoe, Elaine. Nature Close-Up - Slime, Mold and Fungi (Board book)
  • Murphy, Patricia J. Push and Pull
  • Stille, Darlene R. Push and Pull, Fast and Slow
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First Grade

  • Carle, Eric. The Tiny Seed
  • Fowler, Allan. So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape!
  • Gibbons, Gail. Sun Up, Sun Down
  • Heller, Ruth. The Reason for a Flower
  • Trumbauer, Lisa. All About Sound
  • Woodman, Nancy. Dirt: Jump Into Science
  • Swinburne, Stephen. Guess Whose Shadow?
  • Dorros, Arthur. Me and My Shadow
  • Hoban, Tana. Shadows and Reflections
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Second Grade

  • Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake: A Book about Kitchen Chemistry
  • Fowler, Alan. It Could Still Be Water
  • Ganeri, Anita. From Caterpillar to Butterfly (How Living Things Grow)
  • Heiligman, Deborah. From Caterpillar to Butterfly
  • Pfeffer, Wendy. From Tadpole to Frog
  • Rosinsky, Natalie M. Magnets: Pulling Together, Pushing Apart
  • Schreiber, Anne. Magnets
  • Dussling, Jennifer. Looking at Rocks
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Third Grade

  • Aliki. Fossils Tell of Long Ago

  • Aardema, Verna. Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

  • Hewitt, Sally. All Kinds of Habitats

  • Hewitt, Sally. Heat

  • Loewer, Peter and Jean. The Moonflower

  • Pellant, Chris. Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals

  • Silver, Donald. One Small Square: Woods

  • Wilkes, Angela. Animal Homes (Kingfisher Young Knowledge)

  • Mandel, Muriel. Simple Weather Experiments With Everyday Materials

  • Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane

Gold, Becky. Chasing Tornadoes
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Fourth Grade

  • Arnosky, Jim. Crinkleroot’s Guide to Walking in Wild Places
  • Nankivell-Aston, Sally and Dorothy Jackson. Science Experiments with Light
  • Stille, Darlene R. Tropical Rain Forests
  • Taylor, Barbara. Look Closer: Desert Life
  • Whalley, Margaret. Magnetism & Electricity
  • Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus and the Electrical Field Trip
  • Crossingham, John. What Is Hibernation?
  • Clifford, Nick. Incredible Earth
  • Nankivell-Aston, Sally and Dorothy Jackson. Science Experiments with Forces
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Fifth Grade

  • Boudreau, Gloria. Ecosystems - Life in a Forest
  • Cobb, Vicki. Science Experiments You Can Eat
  • Gardner, Robert. Science in Your Backyard
  • Gilbreath, Alice T. The Continental Shelf: An Underwater Frontier
  • Southgate, Merrie. Agnes Pflumm and the Stonecreek Science Fair
  • Southgate, Merrie. No Place Like Periwinkle
  • Asimov, Isaac. Why Does the Moon Change Shape?

Online Science-Themed Activities (all grades) Online Science-Themed Activities (all grades)

Each week this summer, take a virtual tour of a different location, park, museum, or exhibit. All of these options require internet access and should be previewed first by a parent or guardian.


Virtual Zoo or Aquarium: Go on a virtual field trip to a zoo or aquarium. Here is a short list of zoos and aquariums with live streaming animal cameras:

  • San Diego Zoo

  • St. Louis Zoo

  • National Zoo (Washington D.C.)

  • Aquarium of the Pacific

  • Houston Zoo

  • Georgia Aquarium

  • National Aquarium

  • Monterey Bay Aquarium

  • Bronx Zoo/New York Aquarium


While you are there, make a list of the different animals you see. Use your observations to answer the following questions:

  • What kind of animal is it?

  • What is the animal doing?

  • Are there different animals in the enclosure? If so, what are they?

  • How is the animal interacting with its environment?

  • How are the animals physically adapted for their enclosure?


Virtual National Park Tour: Visit a National Park (virtually).Here is a short list of National Parks with virtual tours and live streaming cameras:


  • Crater Lake National Park

  • Channel Island National Park

  • Yellowstone National Park

  • Katmai National Park and Preserve


While checking these places out, make a list of the natural features, plants, and animals you see. You can also describe what the weather is like, find the location on a map and compare it with where we live in South Carolina, and look up information about the history of the park. Check out this link for a more complete list of National Park virtual tours and live cams.


Virtual Natural History Museum: Take a tour of a Natural History Museum or a Science and Technology Museum. Here is a short list of Natural History and Science Museums with virtual tours.:

  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

  • American Museum of Natural History Ology Website (online science resources)

  • The Natural History Museum, London, England

  • NASA Langley Research Center

  • Museum of Science, Boston, MA

  • Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

  • Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center


While checking these places out, make a list of the different science exhibits that you find interesting. Describe what made it interesting for you. List the things you learned about this interesting exhibit while on your virtual tour. Make a list of questions you want to know more about the exhibit.


Virtual Outer Space Explorations: Explore Outer Space from your home! Here is a short list of NASA and other online resources, videos, and live streaming cams:

  • NASA Video Gallery

  • NASA+

  • NASA for Students

  • NOVA Tour the Solar System

  • Solar System Tour

  • Hubble Space Telescope Gallery

  • Space-How-To’s: Everyday Living Off-world

  • Inside the International Space Station


While watching these videos, exploring these images, or taking these tours, list the things you find interesting or exciting. Why do you find these things interesting? What else do you want to know about space? What would you want to do if you could go into space?

At Home Science Learning Activities At Home Science Learning Activities

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Kindergarten

  • Take a walk with your child and note the living and nonliving things in your surroundings. With your phone or a digital camera, you can also take pictures or even record your observations.
  • Safely explore how pushes and pulls to make something move. Make and test predictions of what will happen depending on the strength or direction of the push or pull.
  • Plant some radish or bean seeds in a cup or container and see what happens.
  • Collect leaves and sort them by size, shape, color, and texture. Have your child invent ways to measure the size using an object other than a ruler. (Be aware of any poisonous plants.)
  • Track the weather for several days in a row and ask your child to try to predict the next day’s weather. Ask him/her to tell you why he/she predicted what would happen.
  • If you have some photos or pictures of people, have your child make predictions about what the weather was like from looking at the photos or pictures.
  • Discover what objects will stick to a kitchen magnet . Identify an object by the type of material from which it is made (wood, plastic, metal, cloth, or paper).
  • Foster your child’s innate curiosity.
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First Grade

  • Try placing different materials or objects in front of a flashlight and observe what happens.
  • If you have some small mirrors available, hold them together in different ways to look at your image.
  • Investigate the kinds of lenses that are used in sunglasses to filter light.
  • If you have an outside space, a sunny day, and some sidewalk chalk, go outside and have someone trace your shadow every half-hour or so. What do you observe about your shadow during the day? How does your shadow length relate to the position of the sun in the sky?
  • Explore different ways to produce sound by causing vibrations.
  • Predict and test how different materials sound when you cause vibrations with them.
  • Design a way to communicate using sound over a distance or in another room
  • Keep a moon journal with your child. Go out and observe the moon, note the moon’s shape and position in the sky, and make drawings. Can you name the phases of the moon?
  • Make a moon flipbook. (Search the web for directions.)
  • Talk with your child about what you can see outdoors; daylight and darkness, moon, and stars.
  • View educational television programs that have information on animals.
  • With adult supervision, take a walk in your neighborhood. Talk about the various animals that you see and how they look and what they need.
  • Compare pictures of different adult and young animals. Make a list of how parents and their young animals are similar and how they are different.
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Second Grade

  • Identify solids and liquids around your home.
  • With adult supervision, cook or bake something and discuss the changes in the ingredients you put together.
  • Make some ice cubes and talk about the differences in liquid water and the solid ice.
  • Look at maps and globes and find the locations of water.
  • Make a rock and mineral collection.
  • Observe what kinds and where different earth materials are used in your area.
  • Plant several different seeds and watch them sprout and grow. Measure the weekly growth with a ruler
  • Look at different kinds of plants and ask your child to tell what she or he sees. Discuss the differences among them.
  • Care for a household plant, noting that plants need air, water, nutrients, space, and light.
  • Research different places around the world. Make a list of the different plants and animals you learn about in these different locations. Compare them to where you live.
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Third Grade

  • Keep track of the daily temperature for a week by using an indoor/outdoor thermometer. Write the temperatures on a calendar.
  • On a map with weather symbols, identify what each symbol represents.
  • Examine weather maps from one week and discuss the changes noted
  • Watch a program that describes safety precautions during severe weather
  • Use a magnet and check to see what kinds of materials are attracted. (Do not place magnets on a television screen and electronic devices.)
  • Make an electromagnet. You can find directions online.
  • Discuss some of the uses for magnets and electromagnets.
  • Read about Maglev trains.
  • Discuss the kinds of plants and animals found in South Carolina. What kinds of habitats are available in your state? You can also write and draw this information on a map.
  • View educational television programs that have information on plants and animals.
  • With adult supervision, take a walk in your neighborhood. Talk about the various plants and animals that you see and how they look and what they need to survive.
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Fourth Grade

  • Use a flashlight to determine what materials are transparent, translucent, or opaque.
  • Take a walk in your neighborhood. Talk about the various plants and animals that you see and how they look and what they need.
  • Set up a terrarium or an aquarium.
  • With adult supervision, Visit a natural trail, a pond, a lake, etc. Talk about the similarities and differences you see in plants and animals.
  • Use a battery, bulb, and some insulated wire to make a simple circuit. Be safety aware when working with electricity!
  • If you have a small compass, show what the current in the circuit you make does to the compass needle.
  • Review a world map to see where the most active volcanoes and earthquake zones are.
  • Start a rock and mineral collection. Learn how to classify rocks and minerals.
  • Discuss examples of fossils and locations where they are found.
  • Look up a list of fossils from South Carolina. Discuss what these fossils tell us about what our state used to be like millions of years ago.
  • Go online and find maps that show landforms and oceans around the world. Compare these locations with South Carolina. Which landforms do we have in common? Which ones are not in our state?
  • Go online and look for pictures of different locations along the South Carolina coast from different years. Compare how the coast looked in the past with how it looks now.
  • Check out an amusement park online. Look at photos or videos of various rides and discuss the forces and motion of objects on the different rides.
  • Test different designs for paper airplanes. See what happens when you change different things about each design.
  • If you bike, rollerblade, or ride a skateboard analyze your motion. Note how you move to change direction.
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Fifth Grade

  • Take an inventory of the solids, liquids, and mixtures in your home
  • With supervision, make a trail mix. Measure the mass of each separate group of ingredients before you mix them then measure the mass of the trail mix after you combine the ingredients. What do you notice?
  • With adult supervision, Visit a natural trail, a pond, a lake, etc. Talk about the similarities and differences you see in plants and animals.
  • Read about endangered species and the reasons they are endangered.
  • Set up a terrarium or an aquarium.
  • Observe the night sky. See if you can locate easily recognized constellations.
  • If you have access, download a free astronomy app.
  • Keep a moon journal and track the appearance and position of the Moon each night.
  • If you have a telescope or pair of binoculars, go outside at night and take a look at the Moon and stars. If you can find them, take a look at any planets that are visible.
R2 Elementary Instruction
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