Fall Science Themes

This post is a round-up of 8 Fall Science Themes.  The time frame is really loose because Fall is sometimes a state of mind.  In Texas, I wonder if it will ever cool down sometimes.  I digress… Let’s get to the fun of science.  Exploring eight fall science topics with cross-curricular connections coming right up.

Fall Science Themes

The purpose is to explore seasonal themes using the scientific method. To begin, each of the ten topics has a keepsake foldable book to house the activities.  This is a terrific way to build an interactive record of learning while also keeping up with those fine motor skills all Fall long.  If you’d like to keep things simpler, these activities also fit into a spiral notebook or composition book.  There is no shortage of Fall science themes to explore so choose one or take on all eight!

The themes we will explore are:

• Apples
• Pumpkins
• Spiders
• Bats
• Nocturnal Animals/Owls
• Insects (in contrast to spiders)
• Fire Safety
• Turkeys (birds)

Apples

Getting the apple science keepsake book ready for instruction is easy and quick!  I make the red construction paper part of the book for each student.  As we work through the activities each week, students add to their book until it is full!  This takes about two weeks if you are doing one activity per day (roughly 30 minutes).  I usually do these in a week and a half to two weeks because I will double up and put some of the activities into the writing center to be done independently once students are familiar with format and expectations.

Here are the activities covered in Apple Science:

• Five Senses
• Sink or Float?
• Parts of the Apple- Making Observations
• Apple Tasting Graph
• Seasons of the Apple Tree
• Life Cycle of an Apple
• Descriptive Words
• Apple Facts
• Heavier or Lighter
• My Conclusions

Pumpkin Science

Pumpkin Science typically follows apple science in my classroom and the comparing and contrasting of the two fruits kicks off the fun.  Many students have a lot of background knowledge on the topic and are excited to dig into the learning.  We really get into math and science as we answer many important questions about our favorite gourds.  The writing becomes easier because students are familiar with the formatting and expectations from the previous topic of apples.

Spiders

Spiders are such a fun topic to explore.  After we finish up studying our Fall foliage, it is fun to take on a topic that moves and interacts in our environment!  Life cycles are always a theme throughout the science topics and spiders are no different.  We also explore adaptations.  Our friendly spider has many exciting abilities.

I love to do insects any time of the school year.  If I can fit it in during fall, it makes a great contrast to our spider learning.  Students learn the distinct differences between arachnids and insects and no longer classify them all in the same category.  Students can learn about the world of insects with this cooky beetle booklet of ten interactive insect explorations.

This post not only shows you the inside of the adorable world of insects, but also the books and videos I have enjoyed using to teach insects as well!

Fire Safety

This new Fire Safety interactive science topic activity booklet is coming in HOT.  See what we did there?

Included

• Attributes of a Firefighter
• School Fire Drill How To
• Calling 9-1-1
• Safety Equipment
• Compare and Contrast Heat Sources
• True or False Fire Safety
• Vocabulary for Fire Safety
• Fire Safety Home Plan
• Pre-Writing for Fire Safety
• Fire Safety Writing

Turkey Science

There is so much to learn about turkeys! We not only learn about turkey life cycles and adaptations, but we also learn some new vocabulary, hone our writing skills, and compare and contrast turkeys to our friends the owl and bat! Turkey rounds out our fall science themes.  The final fun is creating our turkey on the outside of the booklet.  This is always perfect for just before Thanksgiving.