Kids read a fun adventure novel and then use the supplemental materials to study the science discussed in the book.
Living Books to learn science.
From the Company:
It starts with an adventure-packed novel.
Each of the Sassafras Science novels follows the Sassafras Twins as they zip around the world learning about science. Along the way, the twins meet local experts who highlight an aspect of science as they journey through each area of science.
We recommend that you read the novels in order from, starting with zoology so that you get the full impact of our journey. But, if animals aren’t your thing, you can pick up with any volume as we review key parts of the story in the first chapter.
The Sassafras Science Adventures books can read-aloud for K on up or independently read for 5th on up.
There are 8 books, each one focuses on one area of science.
The completed series will contain 8 novels, each designed to take half a year to cover. Each novel follows one leg of the Sassafras Twins summer-long adventure. And on each leg, the twins learned about topics relating to one area of science at a time.
Here is a look at the volumes in our series
Volume 6: Astronomy (Coming in 2019)
Volume 7: Chemistry
Volume 8: Physics
You can read the novels all by themselves along with your current plan for science or you can add in our support materials to create a full living books science curriculum.
Then, you add in related science activities and notebooking.
We get it – one of the hardest parts of using a living book for homeschool science is pulling together a plan. So, we also offer loads of support materials to help you turn the series into a complete plan for homeschool science.
We have several options of support materials to fit your family’s needs.
Here is a description of the different components so you can see how the Sassafras Science Series works:
Activity Guides – These guides will help you create a full plan for science education around our novels. You will find chapter summaries, notebooking suggestions, related scientific demonstrations, copywork or dictation, and coordinating activities. The activity guide partners with the SCIDAT logbook which includes notebooking sheets to record what the students are learning.
SCIDAT logbook – Each logbook includes open-ended notebooking pages complete with images and spaces for your students to fill. You will find overview sheets with maps, subject-specific pages with images and space for narrations, glossary sheets with vocabulary cards, and space to record additional narrations, copywork, and dictation assignments.
Lapbooking Guides – Each lapbooking guide leads you through a survey of an area of science using a series of eight mini-lapbooks to document the journey. The lapbooking guide includes vocabulary, lapbooking templates, and a coordinating activity for each chapter.
Coloring Pages – The coloring pages have sheets for the illustrations along with ones for every SCIDAT topic covered in the book. Each topical coloring page has a large, black line illustration along with a key fact sentence for the students to learn about the topic.
Experiment Kits – Each our experiment kits provide the hard to find and difficult to get the materials you need for the experiments found in the Sassafras Science Series. These kits are compatible with both the activity guide and the lapbooking guide.
Our plan for teaching science with a living book looks like this…
So, you can read our novel, choose to do related science activities from the activity guide, and record it all in the SCIDAT logbook.
Of if you kids are younger, you can lighten the writing load a bit by using the lapbooking guide, which has the same scientific demonstration for each chapter, but all the student notebooking is done in cutesy mini-books instead of scary blank pages!
And if you love more, we have got coloring pages, so your littlest crew can join the journey and experiment kits to make your life easier!
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
