Designed for single-level or multilevel classrooms, homeschools, co-ops, or science clubs, Common Sense Science is for grades 3 through 6, with activities for 1st and 2nd grades to facilitate multi-level teaching. The scripted lessons include vocabulary, research prompts for digging deeper, instructions for constructing 3D Graphic Organizers, and labs that use common household items. All you need for a complete study of each unit is the book and the Student Materials Packet.
Our Common Sense Science books offer an easy homeschool science curriculum designed to engage students with hands-on learning. As one of the best hands-on science homeschool curriculums for grades 1-6, our science programs for homeschool provide practical experiments and activities that make science fun and interactive.
This hands-on science homeschool curriculum ensures a dynamic approach to science learning for young students. Lessons in the Common Sense Science series are divided into 18 three-day weeks allowing you to complete two units a year.
The lessons in each unit include foundational content appropriate for first through sixth grade students. All hands-on science activities are coded by ability levels. This enables you to teach all your children at the same time using one science curriculum.
Graphic Organizers help students of all levels better understand concepts by taking complicated information and breaking it down into visual parts. Graphic Organizers allow students to see and touch content, increasing understanding and retention. This hands-on homeschool science makes complicated material easy and fun to learn.
Predictions, observations, and recording data are introduced through labs that include clear directions and use common household items.
All the graphics needed for the 3D Graphic Organizers and labs, as well as vocabulary lists to be used in discussions and writing assignments for reference and review are included in the consumable Student Materials Packet.
The lessons include foundational content appropriate for first through sixth grades at different mastery levels. Through our unique format, each book has materials and learning activities geared for the different grade levels. We use special icons or pictures to show the teacher which tasks to do with each particular age group.
For example, when learning about insect development, a first grader will learn that insects go through changes as they develop. This student is exposed to more information but not expected to retain it. In the same lesson, a sixth-grade student will know the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis and be able to describe the stages of each. Lessons are scripted for reading to younger students. Older students are able to work through the books independently with oversight.
The study of science is based on the Scientific Method. Labs implementing this method provide context for the information found in the science lessons, increasing understanding as well as retention. These steps can be overwhelming to young children and should be used as a guideline to avoid frustrating them.
To simplify the process, the labs in Common Sense Science use the following approach:
Students
Most labs use common household items. Students record their predictions, observations, experiments, and conclusions in a Lab Book.
The Great Science Adventures series was written over 20 years ago. The books were written in the format of lesson plans for teachers supported by little library books which contained the content needed for the students and Dinah Zike’s wonderful graphic organizers. We decided to update the books to make them easier to use and more appealing to students without losing the effective hands-on approach of Dinah's graphic organizers.
We kept the content and the organizers and activities, added more activities and clearer directions, and organized the series to be more pick-up-and-go, finishing up with a more up-dated look. The decision was whether to call the books new editions or revisions. After wrestling with this, we decided it would be best to just make it a new series, Common Sense Science, and to discontinue the old series, Great Science Adventures.
